I am currently in Suzhou with the Dulwich College International Headmasters and the Executive Committee. We have talked through various current educational topics and issues, and have discussed how we can best transform the international group's vision into reality. It has been a privilege to represent DCB at this event and I shall bring back ideas from these discussions to our own College Leadership Team in Beijing.

The role of Headmaster is never dull and this week is no exception. The photo below is from an Early Years assembly on Monday where I talked about sustainability and appeared as 'Captain Recycling'. This was obviously a proud moment for me and allowed me to wear a fetching green cape and mask. The children were on good form and contributed their thoughts eloquently on how to save paper and water, and the importance of recycling plastics.

Last Saturday, Helen and I attended the British Embassy Open Day. I greeted the Ambassador, Dame Barbara Woodward, when she visited the Dulwich booth. The booth itself was organised superbly by our AMC department, with quizzes and a raffle, along with incisive information on DCB. It proved to be very popular, and I would like to thank the Year 12 students who helped on the day: Bonnie Hao, Yi Wen Lee, Emily Li, Shaun Yeo, Natalie Luo and Lin Yin Tan. Thanks also to Mr and Mrs Pankratz for coming along and supporting our students.

Kind regards and have a good weekend,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

School Photographs October 2017

Individual, class and school large group photographs will be taken over a two-week period from Monday, 16th October to Friday, 27th October. For more information please refer to the email sent to all parents on Thursday, September 21st or to our parent portal. You can also click here.

Cross-Fit Training with Friends of Dulwich every Tuesday!

Come and join other DCB parents and staff to work on your fitness and core strength!

Coach Peter Buxton (DCB parent and former professional rugby player and coach) has a huge repertoire, taking the group through cardio and agility exercises, and a mat - based circuit training.

Our group of parent volunteers organises a regular Connections Lunches to help parents explore a variety of amazing dining offers in Beijing in a great company! Do you have an idea for our next Connections lunch?

About the instructor:Amy graduated from OM Shiva Yoga and studied with the famous Indian Yoga teacher N.K.Singh. She has several years of teaching experience in Classical Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga and Power Yoga.

For more information and to register please contact Dulwich Sports Club Reception or email: dcp@dulwich-beijing.cn.

See you on the matt!

Reminder: Notice of Withdrawal From Term 2

If your child will not be returning in Term 2 (8th Jan 2018 to 30th Mar 2018), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Sunday 15th Oct 2017 in order to qualify for a refund.

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an our 2017/18 calendar.

It has been a pleasure this term to see so many of our students engaged in exercise. Our Junior School students excelled in their House Cross Country races on Tuesday, with many strong performances as they ran either once around the pitches (Years 3 and 4) or twice (Years 5 and 6). We encourage all of our students to run regularly and to make the most of any day when the air is good, either during the week or at weekends. Mr. Parry has some very interesting plans to track fitness levels through the year and to engage the children in healthy choices.

Some Senior School students also stretched themselves physically from 1st – 5th September, by participating in the Silver International Award. They spent five days in a beautiful mountainous area known as Wutai Shan, or Five Temple Mountain. Each peak has its own temple (North, South, East, West and Central Temple). They enjoyed/endured a tough hike and reached the highest point of Northern China (3061m). Thank you to the accompanying teachers and well done to the students. Mr. Knapper says that it beats the Peak District!

Maths workshops have taken place this week, explaining to Early Years parents how Maths is delivered to our youngest students. Thank you to the teachers involved and to the many parents who attended and worked so hard!

As you may know, I was away in Singapore on Thursday for the celebration of the life of Mr. Nolan Brook, former Head of Maths at DCB. Over two hundred people were present at the service, a worthy tribute to a kind, funny and loyal colleague, teacher and friend to so many. The photo below shows the number of former and current DCB teachers who made the journey to pay their respects.

Kind regards and have a good weekend,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

From Friends of Dulwich

Friends of Dulwich is our parent organisation with aims to develop strong bridges between parents, students and staff by arranging social events and activities which also raise funds for charity and school projects.

Parents can choose to serve on the Friends Executive Committee, act as Parent Class or Campus Representative or take part in social events and volunteer to help with charitable events organised by Friends.

Friends of Dulwich Culture Club invites all DCB parents to join the first parent trip of the year!

Our group of parent volunteers organises a regular Connections Lunches to help parents explore a variety of amazing dining offers in Beijing in a great company! Do you have an idea for our next Connections lunch?

About the instructor:Amy graduated from OM Shiva Yoga and studied with the famous Indian Yoga teacher N.K.Singh. She has several years of teaching experience in Classical Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga and Power Yoga.

For more information and to register please contact Dulwich Sports Club Reception or email: dcp@dulwich-beijing.cn.

See you on the matt!

Reminder: Notice of Withdrawal From Term 2

If your child will not be returning in Term 2 (8th Jan 2018 to 30th Mar 2018), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Sunday 15th Oct 2017 in order to qualify for a refund.

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an our 2017/18 calendar.

Following the recent announcement of the IGCSE success for last year's Year 11 cohort, we would also like to celebrate a 'Top in China' award for Ashley Wong who is now in Year 12. Ashley managed the best grade in China for Computer Science in the Cambridge International Examinations. Well done Ashley and of course thank you to your teacher, Mr. Balcombe. Ashley will be invited to the Cambridge International award ceremony on October 24th. In the meantime, she is a recipient of the Headmaster's Commendation for this extraordinary achievement.

It was a pleasure to see so many families at the recent Moonlight Madness concert and BBQ. This is always a fun event and many of you commented on the talented students who performed a range of comic, dramatic and musical numbers. We were very proud of the staff band, which included some brand new members and we are hoping they might perform at a Ball or two this year! Thank you to Friends of Dulwich parent volunteers who ran their traditional drinks booth to raise funds for their upcoming projects and the Music, Operations and Events Departments for the organisation.

We were also delighted this week to welcome Learning Through Landscapes expert Matthew Robinson. Deputy Director of Schools, Ms. Kate Beith, persuaded Matthew and a team of colleagues to spend the week considering our outdoor learning provision in its entirety. Children benefit and learn from the natural environment and we are determined that this will increasingly be the case here at DCB, despite the difficult climate at times through the year. The team has looked at sustainability, play spaces, wooded areas, and how nature can integrate into the curriculum. We thank them all for their hard work on this project.

As you know, we like to keep the information flowing and our three schools have already invited parents to Information Evenings or 'Settling-In' Meetings. Thank you to all the teacher teams for this and of course to the parents who have attended. On the subject of communication, may I politely reiterate what was announced at the beginning of the school year: the first point of contact for any initial concern or question is your child's class teacher or form tutor; email works well, or a phone call, or even a pre-arranged meeting. We are very willing to chat and will always try to resolve any problems. If there is an ongoing issue which cannot be resolved by the class teacher or form tutor, please see the Head of Year or Key Stage, or later (if necessary) a Deputy Head or Head of School. WeChat, Weibo or other social media are not effective ways to highlight an issue to the school or to seek information.

It was a pleasure this week to welcome three guests from Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi: Christine Haslett (Head of Early Years), Sameh Eskander (Academic Head of Key Stage 3) and Kayleigh McSweeney (Pastoral Head of Key Stage 3). They all linked in with their counterparts at DCB and I thank those involved from the home team.

Finally, thank you to all the parents who have responded so positively to our request to wear your lanyards. Please wear these around your neck, as this enables staff and students to spot parents or visitors immediately, which leads to a safer campus. Expect to be asked to wear your lanyard appropriately if you are carrying it in your hand or if it is tied to your handbag.

Kind regards and have a good weekend,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

From Friends of Dulwich

Friends of Dulwich is our parent organisation with aims to develop strong bridges between parents, students and staff by arranging social events and activities which also raise funds for charity and school projects.

Parents can choose to serve on the Friends Executive Committee, act as Parent Class or Campus Representative or take part in social events and volunteer to help with charitable events organised by Friends. We are delighted to introduce two parent volunteers who have offered to be co-Chairs of Friends this academic year, Ms. Claudia Kurz and Ms. Erie Hamilton. We wish them the very best for their tenure! You may contact them by friends@dulwich-beijing.cn

If you would like to find out more about Friends of Dulwich, please come to the next Friends Open Meeting on Tuesday, September 12th from 9.15am- 10.00am in Coffee and Books Tutorial Room. It will also be a chance to hear monthly updates from the Headmaster, Mr Simon Herbert. All are invited.

Friends of Dulwich Culture Club invites all DCB parents to join the first parent trip of the year!

If your child will not be returning in Term 2 (8th Jan 2018 to 30th Mar 2018), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Sunday 15th Oct 2017 in order to qualify for a refund.

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an our 2017/18 calendar.

Service to others is a key pillar within a Dulwich education, so it is pleasing to be able to report on two events this week which had philanthropy in mind (please read more in the Senior School newsletter). On Sunday evening, sisters Elizabeth and Victoria Ji gave a concert in the Wodehouse Theatre, collaborating with friends from DCB and elsewhere to raise money for the charity Roundabout and specifically to help hearing and sight impaired children. This was a great success and a credit to both girls for their organisation and preparation.

In addition to this, Ms. Tomaszun invited the charity Education In Sight (EIS) to present to Years 7-12 about the importance of assisting students in rural China to obtain prescription glasses. This was also well received and we have several projects underway to engage our students in helping those less fortunate.

Other guests who had an impact this week were Will and Ian from the organisation Freedom from Chemical Dependency. This US based company has an excellent reputation for educating young people on the physiological facts and dangers of addiction. We thank them both for sharing their stories so openly and for the time they spent with students and parents.

Our parents are already coming in large numbers to workshops and presentations given by our busy teams. We thank our Early Years teachers Jamie Scott, Rebecca Richardson and Jing Gao for their phonics presentation which was attended by ninety-two parents! These parents now have a clearer understanding of this subject and I commend them for spending their time in this way, working with our staff.

Finally, it was a delight to hand out my first Headmaster's Commendation of the term, to a Year 5 student, Julinna W, who excelled in writing a diary entry as the main character of Michael Morpurgo's 'The Butterfly Lion'. Well done Julinna.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

Tencent 99 Philanthropy Days at DCB

Dulwich inspires and cultivates an understanding and care for others, so our students develop the desire to build a better future through a deeper knowledge of the world. Service plays an important role in a Dulwich education. From recycling waste to building up schools for rural areas of Cambodia, our students have shown strong enthusiasm in community service.

In partnership with Dulwich International Schools Foundation (DISF), Dulwich College Beijing is proud to lead the first Tencent 99 Philanthropy Days charity campaign across the DCI community. This week DISF China launched a campus-wide education and fundraising campaign to support Education in Sight (EIS).

EIS is an NGO that works in the poorest regions of rural China to get students the eyeglasses they need to see clearly in school. In the countryside, as many as 50% of middle school students can't see clearly and don't have glasses. As a result, these students can't learn in class and suffer from poorer performance and higher drop-out rates. Since 2012, EIS has delivered over 170,000 eye exams and 22,000 pairs of eyeglasses to students directly in schools.

DCB students can now design advocacy campaign posters for EIS. The best submissions will be opened for voting on September 7th and 8th, with winners and prizes announced on September 11th.

Details of the competitions are as follows.

Dulwich-EIS Photography Competition

Theme: "The Unseen Beauty in Life"

Share your photos related to the theme with us by the deadline, September 6th. The competition is open to all students of Dulwich College Beijing. Students can submit their photos to Education In Sight's WeChat account (scan the QR code below) or via email to Andrew@education-in-sight.org. Each student can submit at most 2 photos. Please indicate where and by whom the photo was taken, including your Year Group as of August 2017. Voting for best photos will be held on EIS WeChat Account and winners will be awarded prizes.

Wechat QR Code

Dulwich-EIS Poster Design Competition

Design an advocacy poster about EIS' cause and share it by the deadline, September 6th. The competition is open to all students of Dulwich College Beijing.

Each student can submit 1 poster. Please indicate designer's name, including your Year Group as of August 2017. Voting for best posters will be held on EIS WeChat Account.

Best posters will be used in EIS' future campaign and winners will be awarded prizes.

Join these two competitions to make a difference!

Reminder: Notice of Withdrawal From Term 2

If your child will not be returning in Term 2 (8th Jan 2018 to 30th Mar 2018), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Sunday 15th Oct 2017 in order to qualify for a refund.

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an our 2017/18 calendar.

School is well and truly up and running. Our Early Years council has reconvened, the Junior School's House Captain elections have taken place and the first of the Senior School House events, the Tug of War, has begun. Two surprise guests joined our Tug of War competition and provided a fun and thrilling start to this annual show of strength: DCI Chairman, Mr. Fraser White, and CEO, Mr. Christian Guertler, accepted our invitation to take part and thrilled the crowd with a stunning performance (particularly when Junior School students joined us)! They formed an almost invincible team with powerhouse Mr. Hawkins and…myself.

Our community always pulls together (please excuse the pun) and aside from the Tug of War, it is lovely to see that our Friends of Dulwich has a new committee. It was a pleasure to meet this group of volunteers, during their first meeting, and to thank them for all they plan to do to support the College. I am delighted to announce that two volunteers have offered to be co-Chairs of Friends, Ms. Claudia Kurz and Ms. Erie Hamilton. We wish them the very best for their tenure. I know that they join us in welcoming all new parents to our College. We hope that newcomers will feel involved and encouraged to attend events – it is sometimes harder for new parents than it is for their children, so we must all do what we can to be inclusive.

Our staff and their families enjoyed a summer BBQ last Saturday in the school grounds, complete with a bouncy castle. Our thanks go to Mr. Stratford and the Staff Social and Wellbeing Team for their organisation of this event.

The current Year 12 students deserve enormous praise for their magnificent IGCSE results, with 74.2% of grades being awarded A* or A. This reflects their commitment, hard work and collaboration, along with the talent and dedication of their teachers. This year's IGCSE and IB results are a credit to our students and to the College. I was asked many questions about our school during a recent 'all Chamber' event downtown and am sure our reputation is growing. Ms. Baran and Ms. Li also gave up their evening to promote the school and I thank them for this.

Today, the Newcomers' Fair took place, and over thirty parents attended this event in C&B. We value the smooth transition that many in our community help others to make when they arrive in Beijing, and this event provided useful information about medical care, pollution survival and even where to buy your groceries!

I wish you and your families a super weekend and hope you make the most of this beautiful Beijing weather.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

After School DCP Registrations

Registrations are now open for the Dulwich Community Programme 2017 Autumn Term. Highlights include: ClubFootball, DCP Basketball with experienced professional coaches, expanded chess training, many dance courses, and much more! There are activities for students from three years old all the way to Senior School.

Different activities are offered on all three campuses: Little Riviera, Riviera Main Campus and Legend Garden. Please visit our Sport Club reception to register or contact Carolyn Cao at Carolyn.cao@dulwich-beijing.cn for more information.

Reminder: Notice of Withdrawal From Term 2

If your child will not be returning in Term 2 (8th Jan 2018 to 30th Mar 2018), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Sunday 15th Oct 2017 in order to qualify for a refund.

Updated Contact Details

We would like to ask parents to email Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn with updated information i.e. home address, mobile/home telephone or email address if these have recently changed.

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an updated version of our 2017/18 calendar.

I am delighted to say the term has started so positively, with the usual DCB buzz, the largest number of students the College has seen at the start of the school year and tremendous IB results. Teachers have been working since August 7th and the new teachers since July 31st, but of course the arrival of the students is what really brings the school back to life. Our new and returning students have clearly enjoyed their holidays and are ready for the new term and all the excitement and challenges it will bring.

I must commend our new teachers, some of whom had very little holiday in between jobs. They have brought a real enthusiasm to their preparatory work and have thrown themselves into life here already. The 'Induction Week' for new staff was very well organised by John Astbury and Katy Cameron and I thank them and all other contributors for their work. Many current teachers and support staff have shown just how kind and welcoming the DCB community is. There was even time for a few social events too, and our new staff were invited to the Herberts' house for drinks and a BBQ.

It was a pleasure to welcome new families to Dulwich on Friday 11th August. Our Admissions and Marketing Department organised this occasion, which allows all new students and families the chance to have a tour of the College, meet key people and prepare more fully before the first official day back to school. I wish all our new students the best possible start and hope that you will make the most of the wonderful opportunity your parents have provided for you through choosing Dulwich College Beijing for your education.

I mentioned the International Baccalaureate success above and I offer my congratulations to the class of 2017 for their superb effort and the well-earned results. They managed an average score of 37.6 points, which compares to a world average of 30 points. This is our second highest score ever and reinforces the consistency achieved by DCB year on year. I commend Mr. Hawkins and his Senior School Leadership Team for guiding these students, Mr. Pankratz and Ms. Palmer for their pastoral leadership and all those who have ever taught the students, including our colleagues in Junior School and Early Years.

If you are able to visit the College soon, I hope that you will notice the remarkable amount of work that has been achieved by our Operations and Maintenance Teams over the summer, both inside the buildings and in the grounds of the College. Mr. Barton, our Director of Business Administration, Mr. Jiang, Head of Operations, and his team should be very pleased with the quality and quantity of the work achieved and we thank them for their commitment. Our SE21 (STEAM) zone will soon be complete and is looking magnificent already. Our Chairman, Mr. Fraser White, has given his full support to this project and we are excited to see it come to fruition.

As you know, we enjoy collaborating with other schools, and it was a pleasure for me to welcome the new Headmaster of the British School of Beijing, Mr. Richard Thornhill, to our campus this week. I look forward to continuing to strengthen our ties with BSB and wish Mr. Thornhill the very best at the start of his tenure.

Please note that 15th September is not a national or school holiday this year, despite what may have been printed in some diaries and planners that have been distributed. Secondly, may I ask from the very start of term that all parents wear lanyards at all times at DCB (around your neck, not carried in your hand or in your handbag). This is a matter of safeguarding our children and avoiding any unwanted visitors on our campus. Thank you for your co-operation.

Finally, I wish you all the best for the new school year and hope to see you at a forthcoming event, perhaps at Moonlight Madness on 1st September. I am very excited to be at the helm of our wonderful school, in this, my second year as Headmaster.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

New Parent Portal - Soft Launch Next Week

Over the summer break, we have been revamping our parent portal with our new provider Titus. We hope that parents will enjoy this new platform and it will become the go-to source for information about your child and his or her key school information, safely and securely, anytime from anyplace. Our new responsive design will offer a mobile-friendly version, which should be an exciting addition! All families will receive an email invitation to DCB parent portal with an individual password next week. Please stay tune for more information!

After School DCP Registrations Start Now!

Registrations are now open for the Dulwich Community Programme 2017 Autumn Term. Highlights include: ClubFootball, DCP Basketball with experienced professional coaches, expanded chess training, many dance courses, and much more! There are activities for students from three years old all the way to Senior School.

Different activities are offered on all three campuses: Little Riviera, Riviera Main Campus and Legend Garden. Please visit our Sport Club reception to register or contact Carolyn Cao at Carolyn.cao@dulwich-beijing.cn for more information.

2017 Dulwich Summer Photography Competition - deadline this Sunday!

This year's theme is: ONE WITH NATURE

Every year our photo contest is a huge hit with a variety of breathtaking entries that are exhibited in our Atrium throughout September! The contest this year is a celebration of the plants and animals, landscapes, and nature moments that bring us joy, peace and happiness..

Share your nature memories with us by the deadline, 20 August 2017, and win a prize!

* Open to all students, parents and staff of Dulwich College Beijing ( ALSO ALL NEW TO DCB!)

* Please indicate where and by whom the photo was taken, including whether you are a student (include Year Group as of August 2017), parent or staff member

* Only photographs based on the theme of 'One with Nature' will be eligible

There are three categories:

(1) Early Years or Junior School Students

(2) Senior School students

(3) Parents and staff

From each category there will be one named winner and two honourable mentions.

Kasia Baran

Head of Admissions, Marketing and Communications

Reminder: Notice of Withdrawal From Term 2

If your child will not be returning in Term 2 (8th Jan 2018 to 30th Mar 2018), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Sunday 15th Oct 2017 in order to qualify for a refund.

Updated Contact Details

We would like to ask parents to email Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn with updated information i.e. home address, mobile/home telephone or email address if these have recently changed.

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an updated version of our 2017/18 calendar.

We have reached the final day of the year. Our teachers and students have worked so hard this term and are ready for their well-earned break. I thank parents for attending the end-of-term events, such as final assemblies, graduations and prizegivings, and wish you all the very best for the summer.

Year 6 Graduation was a lovely event and these Junior School children, soon to be in the Senior School, listened carefully to all the advice offered and noted their Junior School memories and highlights through class videos. We wish them well for Year 7 and thank our Junior School leadership team and teachers for guiding them so well, and parents for supporting them.

I am delighted to announce the appointment of two new Board of Trustee members for Dulwich College Beijing. We were fortunate to have so many applicants this year, which indicates how committed our parents are to helping the College. Mr. David Aikman and Ms. Yue Zhuge, both with children at the school, have been appointed and will commence in the role from August 2017. Mr. Aikman is Chief Representative Officer for the World Economic Forum in Greater China, and Ms. Zhuge is General Manager of Hulu Beijing. Very well done to both and we look forward to working with you.

Finally, last week saw the wonderful Music and Drama Awards take place at the Hilton Airport Hotel. As usual it was a smooth affair, compered by Mr. West, with excellent performances from our talented musicians. It was a tremendous celebration of all things dramatic and musical throughout the year and we commend the prizewinners for their commitment and talent.

It only remains for me to wish you a refreshing and exciting summer, whatever you are doing and wherever you are. I shall be at Dulwich College London for their Founder's Day on 1st July and Helen, Ruth Grant and I will be at the DCL Induction Day for new international staff on 8th July.

I wish all our leaving students the very best of luck for the next stage in your educational careers. To all others – I look forward to welcoming you back next term.

Travel safely and very best wishes,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

2017 Dulwich Summer Photography Competition

As the summer holidays are here, get your cameras ready! We are happy to announce the launch of our 2017 Dulwich Summer Photography Competition!

This year's theme is: ONE WITH NATURE

Every year our photo contest is a huge hit with a variety of breathtaking entries that are exhibited in our Atrium throughout September! Starting June 24th and running until August 20th, we will be accepting photo entries which capture the beauty of nature all around us. The contest this year is a celebration of the plants and animals, landscapes, and nature moments that bring us joy, peace and happiness. Our hope is to encourage all of you to get outdoors and to connect with nature during the summer months.

Share your nature memories with us by the deadline, 20 August 2017, and win a prize!

Last Sunday, after the humiliation of the football match at Founder's Day, the staff got their own back with a convincing win in the annual Mike Gatting 'Parents against Teachers' cricket match. The parents, perhaps overwhelmed by the unorthodox bowling of some members of staff, fell short by just seven runs. Special mention must go to Head of Senior School, Mr. Hawkins, and Director of Business Administration, Mr. Barton, who are both still nursing muscle strains through over-exertion. They were magnificent, as was the young gun Mr. Hughes, who showed what a Dulwich College London education can do for one's cricket. We challenge the parents to a re-match next year and look forward to more fun, camaraderie and Pimms in the sunshine.

Forty Year 3 and 4 children from our Junior School enjoyed some sport of their own this week, in the first ever 'Mini-FOBISIA' event. Four schools took part: BSB Shunyi, BSB Sanlitun, Harrow and DCB. It was an enjoyable two days and all the sports coaches from the four schools should be commended for developing this new event. The first day's action (athletics and tee-ball) took place at DCB and the second day (swimming and football) at Harrow. The results indicate that we have some fine sportspeople coming through DCB and the future of sport looks rosy. Here are some DCB highlights: first overall in athletics; Under 8 Boys winners in football; Under 9 Girls winners in football; Under 8 Mixed tee-ball winners (both A and B teams). Well done, children and coaches!

To continue the sporting theme, it was with sadness that we bade farewell to Mr. Lydall, Mrs. Lydall, Mr. Durbin and Ms. Gai on Friday night at the Sports Awards. We thanked them for all their hard work at DCB. They have all four inspired our students to make sport a part of their lives, to develop skills and to treat others with respect in the sporting arena. They will be sorely missed and we wish them all the very best. On the evening itself, of which you can read more in the Senior School newsletter, the Team of the Year was won by the Varsity Boys' Football, the Coach of the Year by Mr. Hurworth, and the Young Coach of the Year by Helena Bai.

Another super event each year is the extraordinary Friends' Appreciation Lunch for Senior School Teachers, which took place on Friday. The teachers absolutely loved the range of food made by the parents and descended like gannets to the school canteen! Our parents were organised this year by Ms. Michelle Yuan and the quality of food, the presentation and the overall ambience were first rate. On behalf of our teachers, I would like to thank Ms. Yuan and all the generous contributors for such a delicious and convivial lunch.

It is amazing to think that we have nearly reached the final week of school. I wish the Year 11s the best for the remainder of their exams and look forward to meeting parents at prize giving events, leavers' assemblies, Year 6 graduation, Year 3 El Dorado evening and the final music and drama events of the year.

Have a wonderful weekend and we hope all our dads enjoy Father's Day on Sunday.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

FROM UNIFORM SHOP

If you have any credit remaining on the E-VOUCHER, please be reminded that it expires at the end of the school year. Credit cannot be carried over to the next year, so please use it by June 23rd, 2017.

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an updated version of our 2017/18 calendar.

This has been a vibrant week in many ways, beginning with last weekend's Rugby, Netball and Tennis tournament. What a super event, with so many visiting teams, parents and coaches enjoying the competition and complimenting Mr. Lydall and his team on their hard work. The sports department pulled together to make this a really well organised and successful Friday and Saturday of sport. All matches were played in the right spirit and all DCB teams showed determination and good sportsmanship. William Li and Skia Kung managed first place in their respective age groups on the tennis court, with Hugo Yu and Annika Menon coming second in theirs. Mr. Lane's U15 Boys' Rugby Team enjoyed a strong tournament, finishing runners-up overall. Perhaps they were inspired through watching the DCB U19s defeat ISB comprehensively in a powerful performance of exciting rugby. Our netballers never gave up against the accomplished Australians from Hong Kong and the U11s came in third. For full results, please see Ms. Grant's and Mr. Hawkins' newsletters.

The Junior School's 'Singin' in the Rain' musical was exceptional! The quality of singing, acting and dancing was outstanding and the bar is now set very high indeed. The students exuded confidence and the audience was thrilled by the performance and, of course, the real 'rain'! Our thanks to the superb team of Ms. Haynes, Ms. Gough-Olaya, Ms. Dhamelia and Mr. Randall, ably supported by Mr. West. They really have got the best out of this talented cast. Well done to all the children.

As for visual arts and exhibits, I would advise you to take a good look around the Main Atrium, where you will be able to see the work of Junior School and Key Stage 3 artists, plus the new Design Technology exhibition. It is a feast for the eyes and I would like to thank all the students involved and, of course, their teachers.

Thursday brought a chance to thank our committed Friends for all their hard work in support of the College. An appreciation lunch was offered and also the annual tradition of a rose for each volunteer. Friends of Dulwich have had an extremely busy year, and we are grateful to all our helpers in every area. Volunteering can be a thankless task and these parents do this so willingly. Those Friends who are standing down from their important roles this year were presented with a bouquet of flowers and a special thank you. These include the Chair, Jean Li, Treasurer, Vivian Zheng, Early Years Rep (Riviera), Grace Wang, Early Years Reps (LG), Jasmine He and Feifei Liu, Coffee & Books Coordinator, Almen Lam, and Events Coordinator, Anjana Kainikkara. You have all been so dynamic and we thank you all for your community spirit and ongoing support.

Finally, it has been a pleasure to welcome Mr. Stuart Bridge, Head of Senior School from Dulwich College Suzhou, to our campus this week. Mr. Bridge was particularly interested in finding out more about our model of student leadership and met with various school leaders throughout his two day visit.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

FROM UNIFORM SHOP

If you have any credit remaining on the E-VOUCHER, please be reminded that it expires at the end of the school year. Credit cannot be carried over to the next year, so please use it by June 23rd, 2017.

Columbia Business School Venture for All – Summer School hosted at DCB

Summer programme for Senior School students (aged between 14 and 18) interested in learning about Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Innovation, and starting new ventures

Our Founder's Day 2017 proved to be a superb event for the whole community. The reactions from students, parents and staff have been overwhelmingly positive. I would like to thank everyone who made this day so special. Our CEO, Mr. Christian Guertler, and Director of China Schools, Mr. John Todd, really enjoyed the day and asked me to pass on their thanks to all involved. For me, it brought home how important it is for the Dulwich College Beijing community to get together, to celebrate and to have some fun. The music and the international food stalls were excellent and the addition of the parents versus staff football was a welcome, albeit tiring, new feature. Well done to the dads for their performance. I have been asked to thank the referee too – he did a pretty good job! One of our Year 2 girls has asked that every day at school should be like Founder's Day. I'll mention this to our marketing team!

This week has seen two fantastic productions from our Early Years Key Stage 1 children. On Wednesday we thoroughly enjoyed the Riviera Main Campus performance of 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'. Some wonderfully choreographed dancing and hearty singing (by trolls, pigs, goats and flowers) enthralled the audience, who left smiling and humming the catchy tunes. And on Thursday, it was the turn of the Legend Garden children, for the performance of 'There's a Sunflower in my Supper'. Again we saw some amazing singing and acting from such young students. There was a real buzz in the theatre as the children took their parents on a theatrical (and scientific!) journey. There were dancing plants, crazy cows and even a guest appearance from a grumpy giant! Very well done to all.

I hope you will be pleased to know that DCB will now be well represented in the British Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. Helen and I attended the AGM and I was fortunate enough to be elected to the Executive Committee. I think it is important that education and the views of our young people and parents are well represented. I shall now have a greater insight into UK-China business and will help the committee to take the views of our young people into account. I now look forward to helping to foster relations between education and business in Beijing.

Finally, it was a pleasure this week to welcome Mr. Marc Morris, who will soon officially take over from Mr. Brian McDouall as the new DCI Director of Schools. Mr. Morris met with many students and school leaders on this initial visit and even enjoyed a surprise birthday celebration for him at our house.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

Founder's Day Thanks

We hope that you all had a great time on Founder's Day last Saturday! Such a large-scale event would not be possible without your dedication and we would like to send our sincere 'thank you' to each of you! It is really difficult to mention everyone by name, but we would still like to give a special mention to the following (in no particular order!):

* The Friends' Committee and all parent volunteers of the food festival, who put so much time and effort into preparing delicacies enjoyed by the whole community. A special thank you goes to our Friends' Events Coordinator Anjana Kainikkara. For four years in a row she has had the task of liaising with parent volunteers for the food festival. This year she communicated with over 100 volunteers and has managed to stay on top of everything with high spirits and a positive attitude!

* All DCB dads who came forward to play in the DCB Staff vs Dads friendly football match. Special thanks to Nelson Li and Zian Wang for putting the team together! Everyone was excited to see some very professional moves on the pitch! It looks like we may have our new Founder's Day tradition established!

* Our Marketing, Events and Operations Team, all Ayis, movers, and security guards, who worked extremely long hours on logistical details that laid the foundation for the smooth event.

* Teacher and Student Volunteers of the Logistics Team, who helped parents transport their supplies to the food stalls and made sure all ice was delivered on time. These were the guys in green t-shirts with huge smiles who rode their tuk-tuk with great pride!

* The Music Department & all Theatre Technicians led by Paul West, for their meticulous behind-the-stage planning, rehearsing and orchestrated efforts in putting together a splendid 6-hour performance! The Music Team even came back the next day (yes, Sunday!) to continue with 'Singin' in the Rain' musical rehearsals!

* Everyone who planned and put together amazing activities for our students: EY, JS and SS teams, Arts, Chinese, Science, English and PE Departments. All teachers and supporting staff volunteers, for dedicating part of your weekend to help out at our biggest community event and for working on duties as assigned.

* All amazing students whose talents shone through the day and evening! Students from Interact, SDG and all other student initiatives that happily manned their own stands.

* All Our Corporate Sponsors

Thank you again for all your support! It was amazing to see the whole community coming together to make this event a huge success.

Kasia Baran

Head of AMC

Friends' Cultural Trip to Din Tai Fung – STILL PLACES AVAILABLE! BOOK NOW

If you have any credit remaining on the E-VOUCHER, please be reminded that it expires at the end of the school year. Credit cannot be carried over to the next year, so please use it by June 23rd, 2017.

Columbia Business School Venture for All – Summer School hosted at DCB

Summer programme for Senior School students (aged between 14 and 18) interested in learning about Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Innovation, and starting new ventures

I enjoyed a productive week in Dubai at the Dulwich Heads' Steering Group event, but it is good to be back at DCB. We discussed strategy for the DCI schools and shared best practice. I presented on STEAM and Entrepreneurship and the inter-disciplinary concept of project based learning. I look forward to providing you with more information in due course on the exciting way forward.

This week started well with the wonderful Graduation Ceremony. This was a moving event to mark this significant achievement in the lives of our Year 13 students. It was lovely to see so many parents and wider family supporting the graduating class of 2017. Thank you to Mr. Hawkins, Ms. Liu, Ms. Wang and the team for their superb organisation. After enjoying the sight of Mr. Hawkins leading the graduates through the College to the resounding cheers of younger students, we headed to the beautifully decorated Wodehouse Theatre for the ceremony itself, followed by drinks, canapés and photos at the Lakeside. Well done to all the graduates, to the IB leadership team of Mr. Pankratz, Ms. Palmer and Mr. Balcombe, to the university counselling team of Mrs. Pankratz and Ms. Deeds, and to all form tutors and teachers who have worked with the Year 13s this year.

On the subject of university counsellors, I would like to allay one or two concerns. We have a larger Year 12 group coming through next year, so we have already advertised, within our recruitment plan, for an additional university counsellor for the College. We shall therefore have three full university counsellors, plus an assistant counsellor. This will maintain the levels of care and attention given to our students by our excellent team!

The second superb event in the Wodehouse Theatre this week was the Junior School 'Sounds of Summer'. This was a very entertaining evening of classical music and jazz, from the Junior School orchestras and choir. Mr. Paul Jarman, our visiting 'Diversity' guest conductor, expressed how much he had enjoyed working with our committed students. They did themselves proud and gave the audience a show to remember.

I would like to mention one piece of music from the above performance, called 'Making a Better World', which was particularly apt, given the horrific events which took place in Manchester in the UK this week. Our thoughts are with all those who suffered loss or injury. In our College, we have spoken about terrorism, in age appropriate ways, to the children, using materials recommended by UK teaching associations. It was noted that the President of China telephoned the Queen to express solidarity between China and the UK. In our own way, we shall mark our sympathies by re-performing that song on Founder's Day and dedicating it to the people of Manchester. This will take place at 3.05pm on the main stage this Saturday.

Several students, teachers and parents displayed true Dulwich spirit last Saturday, by tackling the Great Wall Marathon or Half Marathon. It was a raging hot day, so even by 9am it proved to be quite a formidable challenge. Three students, Callum Nicolas, Brendan Fosh and Will Herbert, who ran together throughout, managed second place for their age group in the Half Marathon and raised money for the 'Wheels for Life' at UFCH Hospital. Mr. Hogarth, the Mo Farah of DCB, once again paced himself perfectly in the full Marathon and raced home in 6th place overall in the men's event. Mr. Lane drew on his marine-like strength to grind through the 42km and we also commend Mr. Birch, Mr. Stewart, Ms. Stevens and DCB parents Mr. Khan and Ms. Hamlani for their gutsy performances in the Half Marathon.

Our Early Years Reception classes at Legend Garden enjoyed arts and crafts time with their friends, teachers and parent-helpers in the newly revamped outdoor area. A lovely afternoon was enjoyed by all.

Founder's Day is a marvellous community event. Ms. Baran, Ms. Wu, Ms. Jiang and the marketing team have worked extremely hard with excellent collaboration from the Music Department, Operations Department and our parents who have prepared the international stalls. It should be a lovely community event and a truly 'Dulwich day'. Our CEO, Mr. Guertler, and Regional Director, Mr. Todd, will be joining us and we look forward to welcoming them. It will be a hot one, so don't forget your hat and sunscreen!

See you on Saturday.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

Founder's Day this Saturday - 27 May 2017, 2.45pm - 9.00pm!

Please click here to see the 2017 Founder's Day Programme and check out our short videos from last year on our home page at www.dulwich-beijing.cn

Key highlights you can look forward tomorrow include:

* The Flag Parade at 3.00pm. Make sure you join us behind your national flag!

* International Food Festival: Our parent community will be hosting their International Food Festival where 18 countries/regions showcase their local delicacies from 3:15 pm. The national/regional tents this year include: Bolivia, Canada, China, Europe, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, UK, USA. All profits from the International Food Festival and beverage stands will be donated to a charity chosen by the Friends of Dulwich – Love & Hope - and to the Dulwich Student Enrichment Fund (50%/50% split).Country/Region Hamper Raffle: Each year our parents come together to celebrate their home countries' cultures and traditions. As part of this, they prepare beautiful gift baskets with fabulous items from their home countries, to be raffled on Founder's Day. Tickets can be purchased on Saturday at RMB25 for one or RMB100 for five. The winners will be announced at the Raffle Hamper stand by 5:10pm.

* Community Football Matches - 4.30pm: DCB Staff vs DCB Parents ( Mr Herbert playing for both sides) & 5.30pm: DCB Students vs DCB StaffLive performances throughout the day(3.00pm – 9.00pm) with 850 students involved! Parents will receive a separate email from the Music department with the information when their children are expected at the main stage. Please also check this Friday's newsletter for details.

If possible, please walk or cycle to the event. Bicycles can be parked at the Rugby Pitch car park.

If driving, please park in the river road main car park. The car park by the rugby pitch will be closed to all vehicles, and only pedestrians and cyclists will be able to enter. If your driver drops you off, please ask him to park off site to allow families driving themselves to have the car park spaces. Please remember it will be a working day on Saturday for most companies, so plan ahead for some additional traffic on the road.

WEATHER

It looks like it will be hot: please remember sunscreen and hats. There will be lots of water activities and children like to get wet, so please bring a change of clothes and/or swimsuits for the little ones.

We will have shaded resting areas for parents and encourage you to bring picnic blankets to enjoy the event (picnic blankets will be also on sale at the DCB Marketing stall).

In case of rain or pollution, the day will take place indoors! It looks quite unlikely for this to happen; however, if so, parents will be informed via email, text message and our website on Saturday morning.

SAFEGUARDING

Please bring your DCB parent lanyards for a quick entry to the fields. The event is open to the broader community and all your friends are invited but they will have to sign up at one of the welcome receptions.

EY and JS children have to be accompanied by their parents at the event please. Our staff will be manning the activity booths and cannot look after the children.

The Lost & Found station will be located in the centre next to the First Aid stand.

FINAL REMARKS

Plan your day - this is a very busy day, with a lot of activities so I would suggest looking at the programme and schedule before the day. There will be rugby, netball and football matches, Early Years play area, splash zone, raffle hampers, pop idol and so much more - don't miss out! Please read the programme carefully here for timings

We are trying to go Green with our Founder's Day this year. Please bring your own cups and water bottles if possible and try to reuse the cutlery from the Food Stalls. Support our students who will be encouraging you to recycle and sort your own rubbish on the day.

Due to the large number of people coming and activities taking place throughout the day, pets are not allowed.

We are looking forward to seeing many of you at Founder's Day!

Friends of Dulwich Annual General Meeting and Executive Committee Election – June 1, 2017: ALL INVITED

We would like to invite our parent community to Friends AGM that will take place on June 1st, 2017 at 9.00am in the Legend Garden Campus.

At this meeting, parents will receive the Friends' report on activities and finances for the whole 2016-17 academic year, since the previous AGM.

It will be also the time to elect and announce positions on the Executive Committee for the next academic year.

If you are interested in any of the above positions, please contact Kasia Baran at kasia.baran@dulwich-beijing.cn for more information on the roles and responsibilities.

Nominations for election may be made by the nominee directly, or any DCB parent with the consent of the nominee. Individuals may nominate for more than one position but may only be appointed for one position.

Where a position is uncontested, the nominated candidate will be automatically appointed and announced at the AGM. Where there is more than one nominee for a position, parents may vote for the candidates at the AGM.

We would like to us this opportunity to thank our Friends Executive Committee for their incredible contribution this year and encourage more of our parents to get involved next year.

Columbia Business School Venture for All – Summer School hosted at DCB

Summer programme for Senior School students (aged between 14 and 18) interested in learning about Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Innovation, and starting new ventures

Our annual Founders's Day is less than 3 weeks away. Click below to see what to expect:

Would you like to make a contribution to the largest community event of the year? This is what you can do:

1) Contribute to Founder's Day Hampers!

As a Founder's Day tradition, countries prepare 'hampers' of special treats or memorabilia representative of their culture, which can include non-perishable food, wine, books, restaurant vouchers, decorative items, etc. Posters of hampers will be displayed in the reception area before the Founder's Day and shared on our Wechat. The actual hampers will be raffled on Founder's Day with lucky winners drawn in the afternoon. .

If you're willing to make contributions to your country's hamper, please email ashley.wu@dulwich-beijing.cn who will connect you with your country rep.

Students from Interact and DCB Sustainability Club are determined to raise awareness on sustainability across campuses. They'll not only be collecting and selling second-hand toys and books but also sorting garbage on Founder's Day. Labelled trash bins will replace regular ones and be put around the field. Please support our students' initiative by donating used toys and books to your campus receptions. Meanwhile, while you're enjoying drinks and delicacies at the food stalls, please be mindful to reuse your disposable cutleries and sort your own trash.

3) Join our Flag Parade!

This year's Founder's Day will start straight with Flag Parade at 3:00pm. Come join the Flag Parade and celebrate the diversity of our community. Walk with your country's flag with pride! If you wish to participate the Flag Parade, please report to the flag zone beside the Main Stage by 2:45pm sharp.

Friends of Dulwich Annual General Meeting and Executive Committee Election – June 1, 2017: ALL INVITED

We would like to invite our parent community to Friends AGM that will take place on June 1st, 2017 at 9.00am in the Legend Garden Campus.

At this meeting, parents will receive the Friends' report on activities and finances for the whole 2016-17 academic year, since the previous AGM.

It will be also the time to elect and announce positions on the Executive Committee for the next academic year.

If you are interested in any of the above positions, please contact Kasia Baran at kasia.baran@dulwich-beijing.cn for more information on the roles and responsibilities.

Nominations for election may be made by the nominee directly, or any DCB parent with the consent of the nominee. Individuals may nominate for more than one position but may only be appointed for one position.

Where a position is uncontested, the nominated candidate will be automatically appointed and announced at the AGM. Where there is more than one nominee for a position, parents may vote for the candidates at the AGM.

We would like to us this opportunity to thank our Friends Executive Committee for their incredible contribution this year and encourage more of our parents to get involved next year.

Columbia Business School Venture for All – Summer School hosted at DCB

Summer programme for Senior School students (aged between 14 and 18) interested in learning about Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Innovation, and starting new ventures

It has been a joy to see our Junior School children engaging in the diversity of International Week. Each form group was allocated a country by Mr. Ross during assembly and the students in each class have studied the customs, language, food, culture and costumes of these countries. It has certainly been a fun way to learn more about others and pay respect to different cultures. I am now looking forward to our Founder's Day (May 27th) even more, especially the international food stalls run by our parent volunteers!

Early Years children have been enjoying their newly formed School Council. Who said that our younger students do not have opinions or know how to voice them? Ideas centred around playground equipment, lunch options and classroom facilities and also included some brilliant suggestions following Earth Day, such as the reduction of the use of plastic. Chloe L suggested, 'Making a plastic man out of plastic bottles and display him and have him say, "Don't buy water in plastic bottles – use water bottles instead." ' Well done to the Year 1 and 2 students involved from both campuses. Many children will have a chance to participate, as new members will be involved each term.

Our community links continue to flourish - more of our musicians are being asked to provide performances for events in Beijing. Last Saturday, May 6th, the Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Combo were invited to perform at the Commonwealth Society of Beijing's Charity Dinner. It was a formal affair, according to Ms. Bonner, with money raised for Roundabout and other charities. The students played beautifully, and helped set the atmosphere for a wonderful evening.

I would like to thank Ms. Jones for her determination to help Syrian child refugees. Her idea was for teachers and children to notch up kilometres through walking, running, cycling or swimming. The goal was to reach 4,257km, the distance that refugees must travel between Damascus to London in order to reach asylum. DCB beat this by 310km, making our total 4,567km, with 17,171 RMB raised. A particular mention must go to the children in 8MSY, who managed to travel 1,869km – which is 41% of the entire total. The 3 students who ran, walked, cycled, or swam the farthest distance are: Jaewon C (200km), Ivy K (113km) and Jenny L (78km). Jenny and Jaewon have received a Head's Commendation in assembly. I shall catch up with Ivy when she has finished her GCSEs!

On Thursday, we had our final Board of Trustees meeting of the year.

I would like to express my thanks again to Ms. Jie Wang (Chair) and Mr. Ben Cheng for all their commitment, balanced judgement, constructive comments, teamwork, and constant support for the school. They now leave the roles, as their own children graduate this year. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Jie Wang and Ben.

It has been a delight to welcome Dr. Cameron Pyke, the Deputy Head (External) from Dulwich College London, to join us for the Trustees' meeting, as he is in DCB for two days as part of the annual Charter Inspection visit. Dr. Pyke has met with students, parents and teachers and has already given very positive feedback about the overall ethos, academic rigour and holistic vision of the College. We welcome Dr. Pyke's perspective as a 'critical friend' and are delighted that his visit has gone so well. Thank you to all those who have shared their views with him.

Have a good weekend.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

Founder's Day is approaching!

Our annual Founders's Day is less than 3 weeks away. Click below to see what to expect:

Would you like to make a contribution to the largest community event of the year? This is what you can do:

1) Contribute to Founder's Day Hampers!

As a Founder's Day tradition, countries prepare 'hampers' of special treats or memorabilia representative of their culture, which can include non-perishable food, wine, books, restaurant vouchers, decorative items, etc. Posters of hampers will be displayed in the reception area before the Founder's Day and shared on our Wechat. The actual hampers will be raffled on Founder's Day with lucky winners drawn in the afternoon. .

If you're willing to make contributions to your country's hamper, please email ashley.wu@dulwich-beijing.cn who will connect you with your country rep.

Students from Interact and DCB Sustainability Club are determined to raise awareness on sustainability across campuses. They'll not only be collecting and selling second-hand toys and books but also sorting garbage on Founder's Day. Labelled trash bins will replace regular ones and be put around the field. Please support our students' initiative by donating used toys and books to your campus receptions. Meanwhile, while you're enjoying drinks and delicacies at the food stalls, please be mindful to reuse your disposable cutleries and sort your own trash.

3) Join our Flag Parade!

This year's Founder's Day will start straight with Flag Parade at 3:00pm. Come join the Flag Parade and celebrate the diversity of our community. Walk with your country's flag with pride! If you wish to participate the Flag Parade, please report to the flag zone beside the Main Stage by 2:45pm sharp.

Friends of Dulwich Annual General Meeting and Executive Committee Election – June 1, 2017: ALL INVITED

.

We would like to invite our parent community to Friends AGM that will take place on June 1st, 2017 at 9.00am in the Legend Garden Campus.

At this meeting, parents will receive the Friends' report on activities and finances for the whole 2016-17 academic year, since the previous AGM.

It will be also the time to elect and announce positions on the Executive Committee for the next academic year.

If you are interested in any of the above positions, please contact Kasia Baran at kasia.baran@dulwich-beijing.cn for more information on the roles and responsibilities.

Nominations for election may be made by the nominee directly, or any DCB parent with the consent of the nominee. Individuals may nominate for more than one position but may only be appointed for one position.

Where a position is uncontested, the nominated candidate will be automatically appointed and announced at the AGM. Where there is more than one nominee for a position, parents may vote for the candidates at the AGM.

We would like to us this opportunity to thank our Friends Executive Committee for their incredible contribution this year and encourage more of our parents to get involved next year.

Columbia Business School Venture for All – Summer School hosted at DCB

Summer programme for Senior School students (aged between 14 and 18) interested in learning about Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Innovation, and starting new ventures

School is well and truly up and running. Our Early Years council has reconvened, the Junior School's House Captain elections have taken place and the first of the Senior School House events, the Tug of War, has begun. Two surprise guests joined our Tug of War competition and provided a fun and thrilling start to this annual show of strength: DCI Chairman, Mr. Fraser White, and CEO, Mr. Christian Guertler, accepted our invitation to take part and thrilled the crowd with a stunning performance (particularly when Junior School students joined us)! They formed an almost invincible team with powerhouse Mr. Hawkins and…myself.

Our community always pulls together (please excuse the pun) and aside from the Tug of War, it is lovely to see that our Friends of Dulwich has a new committee. It was a pleasure to meet this group of volunteers, during their first meeting, and to thank them for all they plan to do to support the College. I am delighted to announce that two volunteers have offered to be co-Chairs of Friends, Ms. Claudia Kurz and Ms. Erie Hamilton. We wish them the very best for their tenure. I know that they join us in welcoming all new parents to our College. We hope that newcomers will feel involved and encouraged to attend events – it is sometimes harder for new parents than it is for their children, so we must all do what we can to be inclusive.

Our staff and their families enjoyed a summer BBQ last Saturday in the school grounds, complete with a bouncy castle. Our thanks go to Mr. Stratford and the Staff Social and Wellbeing Team for their organisation of this event.

The current Year 12 students deserve enormous praise for their magnificent IGCSE results, with 74.2% of grades being awarded A* or A. This reflects their commitment, hard work and collaboration, along with the talent and dedication of their teachers. This year's IGCSE and IB results are a credit to our students and to the College. I was asked many questions about our school during a recent 'all Chamber' event downtown and am sure our reputation is growing. Ms. Baran and Ms. Li also gave up their evening to promote the school and I thank them for this.

Today, the Newcomers' Fair took place, and over thirty parents attended this event in C&B. We value the smooth transition that many in our community help others to make when they arrive in Beijing, and this event provided useful information about medical care, pollution survival and even where to buy your groceries!

I wish you and your families a super weekend and hope you make the most of this beautiful Beijing weather.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

After School DCP Registrations

Registrations are now open for the Dulwich Community Programme 2017 Autumn Term. Highlights include: ClubFootball, DCP Basketball with experienced professional coaches, expanded chess training, many dance courses, and much more! There are activities for students from three years old all the way to Senior School.

Different activities are offered on all three campuses: Little Riviera, Riviera Main Campus and Legend Garden. Please visit our Sport Club reception to register or contact Carolyn Cao at Carolyn.cao@dulwich-beijing.cn for more information.

Reminder: Notice of Withdrawal From Term 2

If your child will not be returning in Term 2 (8th Jan 2018 to 30th Mar 2018), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Sunday 15th Oct 2017 in order to qualify for a refund.

Updated Contact Details

We would like to ask parents to email Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn with updated information i.e. home address, mobile/home telephone or email address if these have recently changed.

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an updated version of our 2017/18 calendar.

School is well and truly up and running. Our Early Years council has reconvened, the Junior School's House Captain elections have taken place and the first of the Senior School House events, the Tug of War, has begun. Two surprise guests joined our Tug of War competition and provided a fun and thrilling start to this annual show of strength: DCI Chairman, Mr. Fraser White, and CEO, Mr. Christian Guertler, accepted our invitation to take part and thrilled the crowd with a stunning performance (particularly when Junior School students joined us)! They formed an almost invincible team with powerhouse Mr. Hawkins and…myself.

Our community always pulls together (please excuse the pun) and aside from the Tug of War, it is lovely to see that our Friends of Dulwich has a new committee. It was a pleasure to meet this group of volunteers, during their first meeting, and to thank them for all they plan to do to support the College. I am delighted to announce that two volunteers have offered to be co-Chairs of Friends, Ms. Claudia Kurz and Ms. Erie Hamilton. We wish them the very best for their tenure. I know that they join us in welcoming all new parents to our College. We hope that newcomers will feel involved and encouraged to attend events – it is sometimes harder for new parents than it is for their children, so we must all do what we can to be inclusive.

Our staff and their families enjoyed a summer BBQ last Saturday in the school grounds, complete with a bouncy castle. Our thanks go to Mr. Stratford and the Staff Social and Wellbeing Team for their organisation of this event.

The current Year 12 students deserve enormous praise for their magnificent IGCSE results, with 74.2% of grades being awarded A* or A. This reflects their commitment, hard work and collaboration, along with the talent and dedication of their teachers. This year's IGCSE and IB results are a credit to our students and to the College. I was asked many questions about our school during a recent 'all Chamber' event downtown and am sure our reputation is growing. Ms. Baran and Ms. Li also gave up their evening to promote the school and I thank them for this.

Today, the Newcomers' Fair took place, and over thirty parents attended this event in C&B. We value the smooth transition that many in our community help others to make when they arrive in Beijing, and this event provided useful information about medical care, pollution survival and even where to buy your groceries!

I wish you and your families a super weekend and hope you make the most of this beautiful Beijing weather.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

After School DCP Registrations

Registrations are now open for the Dulwich Community Programme 2017 Autumn Term. Highlights include: ClubFootball, DCP Basketball with experienced professional coaches, expanded chess training, many dance courses, and much more! There are activities for students from three years old all the way to Senior School.

Different activities are offered on all three campuses: Little Riviera, Riviera Main Campus and Legend Garden. Please visit our Sport Club reception to register or contact Carolyn Cao at Carolyn.cao@dulwich-beijing.cn for more information.

Reminder: Notice of Withdrawal From Term 2

If your child will not be returning in Term 2 (8th Jan 2018 to 30th Mar 2018), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Sunday 15th Oct 2017 in order to qualify for a refund.

Updated Contact Details

We would like to ask parents to email Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn with updated information i.e. home address, mobile/home telephone or email address if these have recently changed.

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an updated version of our 2017/18 calendar.

Sport takes pride of place this week at the beginning of this letter to you. Sport is one of our four pillars here at DCB, as you know, and I am delighted to have seen Early Years, Junior School and Senior School children engaging with such passion and commitment in a variety of sports. This is so good for their health and wellbeing and at this time of year, when exams are approaching for some, it is even more important to take a break and get some exercise.

Our youngest students enjoyed their Early Years Sports Day this week, which took place in glorious weather at the Riviera Campus. The range of sporting activities was impressive, with a good mix of competition and fun, thanks to Mr. Du and Mrs. Lydall.

Our Junior School children participated in their swimming gala on Monday, which was a lively event. Our swimmers competed in classes and according to levels, which created the most competitive environment for all. Thank you to Coach Gao and Mrs. Lydall.

As promised from last week's letter, here is a follow-up to the ACAMIS article. Our U19 Boys' Football Team won the tournament convincingly and our U19 Girls' Football Team lost narrowly in the final on penalties! The matches were exciting, the student and parent supporters were enthralled and all visiting teams spoke highly of the quality of the play and their enjoyment. There was a real sense of community on the South Pitch throughout the tournament and our coaches Mr. Hurworth and Ms. Sadler deserve our praise. Many thanks also to Mr. Lydall and Mr. Boli Liu for organising the tournament. The determination of the Dulwich Beijing boys and girls was really quite remarkable and sets the bar high for next year. The boys also won the trophy for Sportsmanship, which is voted by the coaches from every team involved. For a host team to win this, it really is special, and exemplifies what Mr. Hurworth has been trying to achieve with this team – professionalism both on and off the pitch. The Dulwich values were in clear evidence. I noticed that the DCB girls gave a standing ovation to their opponents and eventual winners (DCS) in the Wodehouse Theatre, which was commendable as a gesture of respect.

Last Sunday, a number of Dulwich 'fun runners' from all areas of the College, competed in a 8.5K or 3K run near Yosemite compound. It was an enjoyable community event and saw Michael Zhou from Year 8 come fifth in the Men's section, which is some achievement. The whole event gave me the idea that this is something that Dulwich can do, but better, next term! I wonder if our parents would join in, bring their children and link it to a good cause? Let me know what you think the next time you see me.

Our musicians performed at a new venue last week - Legend Heights restaurant next to the West Dome. It was a beautiful evening of Chamber Music, with a buffet included during the musical interludes. Thank you very much to Ms. Chou for the organisation of this inaugural event.

Our University Counselling Department has also been busy and we are delighted with the wonderful list of offers to our students this year. Mrs. Pankratz represented DCB as one of the panelists at the BritCham Education Forum on 'Trends in UK University Admissions' last Tuesday. The event was very well attended, with over sixty participants, including university reps, educational institutions and professionals from BritCham member companies.

Finally, two of our diligent and supportive Board of Trustee members, Ben Cheng and Jie Wang (Chair), are stepping down this year, as their daughters come to the end of their Dulwich careers. We will say more of their significant contribution towards the end of the year, but at this point I simply thank them for their incredible service to the College and give notice that we will be seeking to find two new trustees. Letters on how to apply to become a trustee come out on Monday.

I hope you have a good weekend.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

REGISTER FOR THE NEW DCP CLUBFOOTBALL SKILLS LEAGUE!

DCP (Dulwich Community Programmes) is pleased to announce that, in cooperation with ClubFootball, we will run a new football skills league programme for Junior School students on Mondays from 24 April, 2017!

ClubFootball Skills Leagues are level 2 of ClubFootball's 3-level Football Development Programme and are open to boys and girls who already have basic skills and are ready to progress to a more match-oriented type of training programme. In the 120 minutes of training every Monday, students will receive a first half of technical training, and a second half of match play.

On Thursday this week, the College Leadership Team spent the day discussing the College Development Plan for next year, along with key measurements and longer term planning. I would like to thank Mr. Barton, Ms. Grant, Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Mumford, and also Ms. Baran and Ms. Qin for their hard work on this. The aims are exciting and are grounded in the highest standards and expectations for your children and the College. The next stage is for the leadership teams of each section of the College to draft their own plans based on today's work. I look forward to sharing these with you in due course.

Last Saturday, children from the Little Tree Orphanage spent the morning at Dulwich College Beijing. We firmly believe that our links with the community are crucial and we are grateful to Chilli Yao, one of our Teaching Assistants here at DCB, for making us aware of this local orphanage. This visit by Little Tree is the first of many and allows the children and their carers some fun in a different environment. The children enjoyed football, art, snack time and racing around on the trikes. Many thanks to the Dulwich teachers who came to help.

Educational links with Chinese schools were also strengthened this week, as we welcomed many teachers from Chinese rural schools to join us at DCB, for presentations and workshops. This is part of the China Development Foundation and we are grateful to Clare Pearson for her initiative and to Mr. McKee for the organisation at this end.

Our Chinese department deserves the highest praise for the production of Mulan last Friday. From the costumes, the confident performances by native and non-native speakers, through to the collaboration of teachers, students, and parents, it was a stunning piece of work. Very well done to the directors Ms. Zhang and Ms. Pan, the student scriptwriters and to Ms. Jane Li and Caroline Li for the rehearsals during the Chinese Drama ECA.

Our Junior School students excelled during the MADD (Music Art Drama and Dance) Festival at Dulwich College Seoul. Thank you to our accompanying teachers and of course to our friends at Seoul for hosting. It was, by all accounts, a very successful trip. Please see Ms. Grant's newsletter for full details.

As you know, we are always keen for our students to hear from distinguished speakers about resilience, determination and overcoming difficulties in life. It was therefore a true pleasure to invite Ms. Ellie Simmonds, British Paralympian swimmer supreme, to talk to our Junior School students. Ms. Simmonds was utterly engaging, showed her Paralympic Gold Medals, allowed children to wear them, and played a video of her free style world record breaking win in the last Paralympic Games. We were delighted by the visit and the mature and astute questions from these Year 3-6 students. Thank you to Mr. Lydall for organising this.

Finally, on the subject of medals, our sportsmen and women have made us proud again, with four out of six ISAC teams winning their basketball tournaments last weekend. An extraordinary haul - well done to the students and coaches.

I hope you have a good weekend and enjoy the holiday on Monday.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

Countdown to Founder's Day 2017 !

Founder's Day 2017 is fast approaching! As a celebration of who we are as a community and everything we value as a school, this biggest community event of the year highlights our diversity and includes performances and mini-events that showcase our four pillars of Dulwich education.

* 30+ Family Friendly Activities run by DCB teachers and students* International Food Festival featuring delicacies and cuisines from 16 countries and regions, all run by DCB parents!* 6-hour long Music Programme on the Main Stage (hundreds of students involved)

New this year:

* 45-minutes Immortality Service by English Department* Student led second-hand book and children's toy sales for Charity* Staff vs Parents football game

* And more!

Use your May break to clean up your shelves from unwanted books and toys and bring them to DCB in the coming weeks to support Founder's Day charities. Find our how to get involved in your country's food stall or a flag parade. It is still not too late! Email Ashley.Wu@dulwich-beijing.cn for details.

Friends of Dulwich Annual General Meeting and Executive Committee Election – June 1, 2017: ALL INVITED

We would like to invite our parent community to Friends AGM that will take place on June 1st, 2017 at 9.00am in the Legend Garden Campus.

At this meeting, parents will receive the Friends' report on activities and finances for the whole 2016-17 academic year, since the previous AGM.

It will be also the time to elect and announce positions on the Executive Committee for the next academic year.

If you are interested in any of the above positions, please contact Kasia Baran at kasia.baran@dulwich-beijing.cn for more information on the roles and responsibilities.

Nominations for election may be made by the nominee directly, or any DCB parent with the consent of the nominee. Individuals may nominate for more than one position but may only be appointed for one position.

Where a position is uncontested, the nominated candidate will be automatically appointed and announced at the AGM. Where there is more than one nominee for a position, parents may vote for the candidates at the AGM.

We would like to us this opportunity to thank our Friends Executive Committee for their incredible contribution this year and encourage more of our parents to get involved next year.

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an updated version of our 2017/18 calendar.

Service to others, a fundamental part of the Dulwich ethos, was in full evidence this week at the Corporate Social Responsibility Awards, organised by the British Chamber and American Chamber of Commerce. These awards recognize the most outstanding and long-lasting commitments to those less fortunate throughout China. I am delighted to report that the only student who gained an award was our own Tony Liang (Year 13) for his Project Nightingale, which was runner-up in the Integration category. Mr. Hawkins, Ms. Palmer, Tony's father and I were there to support him at this event at the Opposite House Hotel.

Project Nightingale has inspired musical collaborations with migrant schools over the last two years and Tony and his team are involved every Saturday morning. Tony told me that getting up to do this every week, 'Is hard and seems like a chore initially, but then makes you feel well set up for the weekend!' Tony was competing against huge corporations, such as banks, real estate agents and conglomerates. It was extraordinary for a school based student-led project to be honoured. Well done Tony and team for this project, which has already been handed on to others, to ensure a continuing legacy.

The photos below show Tony with his father, and also with the Chair of the British Chamber, Clare Pearson.

Well done to Year 6, who enjoyed an excellent trip to Ji County. We thank Mr. Hennessy and his team for their hard work and Wild China for the programme of hiking, camping, fun and cultural knowledge. Ms. Grant and Mr. Hennessy devised a 'Plan B' in case of pollution, which I know parents appreciated. Fortunately, Thursday's sandstorm did not affect the trip.

On the subject of pollution, you will receive a message on Beijing school closure policy from Ms. Baran. I know some parents were wondering when and how a decision is made. Please read that note and do come back to us with any questions.

Finally, thank you to all our parents, drivers and ayis who always dutifully wear school lanyards around the neck (not in a pocket or handbag), where they are visible and easy to identify. This is very helpful and saves a lot of time for those ensuring the safety of the children. If ever you forget your lanyard, do not be surprised when asked to wear a visitor's badge.

Have a good weekend.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

FOUNDER'S DAY 2017

Second – hand Books and Toys Drive Next Week!

This Founder's Day, student teams - Interact, the SDG club, and the Service Prefects will be supporting the Dulwich community in a school-wide initiative to Go Green. The proposal revolves around two central themes: to reuse and to recycle.

To recycle, labelled bins will be situated around the area from 3:00pm-7:30pm, with student volunteers supervising the proper allocation of rubbish. The sorted waste will then be appropriately recycled by collaborating companies.

To reuse, Junior School will be setting up their annual second hand - book stand, and Senior School students will be supporting this with a toy drive, reselling beloved toys looking for a second home to those who are interested. Proceeds will be used to support further service projects within the school, and unsold toys will be donated to Roundabout.

Going Greenisn't just an initiative—it is a mindset, and in order to achieve this, we need to recognize our privilege and the responsibility that it entails. Our wishes are that what is put in place on Founder's Day will pave the way for further steps towards environmental sustainability.

What to do:

* Bring your unwanted toys and books to one of the Dulwich reception desks between May 5 – 25th. (They have to be in a good condition, ready for resell).

* Mark your calendars for DCB 2017 Founder's Day - May 27th - a community event you cannot miss!

* Bring some cash on the day to give our toys and books a second chance and support DCB future sustainability projects!

* 30+ Family Friendly Activities run by DCB teachers and students* International Food Festival featuring delicacies and cuisines from 16 countries and regions, all run by DCB parents!* 6-hour long Music Programme on the Main Stage (hundreds of students involved)

New this year:

* 45-minutes Immortality Service by English Department* Student led second-hand book and children's toy sales for Charity* Staff vs Parents football game

* And more!

Use your May break to clean up your shelves from unwanted books and toys and bring them to DCB in the coming weeks to support Founder's Day charities. Find our how to get involved in your country's food stall or a flag parade. It is still not too late! Email Ashley.Wu@dulwich-beijing.cn for details.

Friends of Dulwich Annual General Meeting and Executive Committee Election – June 1, 2017: ALL INVITED

We would like to invite our parent community to Friends AGM that will take place on June 1st, 2017 at 9.00am in the Legend Garden Campus.

At this meeting, parents will receive the Friends' report on activities and finances for the whole 2016-17 academic year, since the previous AGM.

It will be also the time to elect and announce positions on the Executive Committee for the next academic year.

If you are interested in any of the above positions, please contact Kasia Baran at kasia.baran@dulwich-beijing.cn for more information on the roles and responsibilities.

Nominations for election may be made by the nominee directly, or any DCB parent with the consent of the nominee. Individuals may nominate for more than one position but may only be appointed for one position.

Where a position is uncontested, the nominated candidate will be automatically appointed and announced at the AGM. Where there is more than one nominee for a position, parents may vote for the candidates at the AGM.

We would like to us this opportunity to thank our Friends Executive Committee for their incredible contribution this year and encourage more of our parents to get involved next year.

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an updated version of our 2017/18 calendar.

I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Spring Break. This is such a beautiful time of year in Beijing, as the trees are in blossom and the weather warms up. Let's hope that the pollution stays away so that our students can take full advantage of playing outside during their breaks and after school.

One group of students delighted with the warmer weather is the U19 ACAMIS Varsity football squad. The tournament has started well, and as I write this, both boys' and girls' teams defeated WAB comfortably on Thursday. Our girls drew with Dulwich College Shanghai and the boys won 2-0. The tournament finishes on Saturday, so I shall be able to provide full details of results in next week's newsletter. What I can say is that DCB teams are looking strong and very well prepared, so well done to coaches Mr. Hurworth and Ms. Sadler. I am delighted that there was so much support today from younger students in the school – this really gave our teams a boost. I would also like to commend our tremendous parents who are supporting and hosting. We are so grateful to all those families who have willingly received guests. I can certainly vouch for the extra enjoyment that ensues, although we may need to do more food shopping tomorrow, with eight boys currently in the Herbert household!

As you know, the teachers and support staff participated in a professional development day on Monday. I would like to praise the leadership teams in all three schools for such creative ideas. The carousel of activities in Early Years, visiting author in Junior School and coaching and observation focus in the Senior School were all well received. I joined the three schools throughout the day. Thank you in particular to all teachers who presented.

Parents also benefited from the expertise of two visitors this week. Julia Cook writes for younger readers and manages to incorporate serious themes into very readable texts. 'The Judgemental Flower', for example, deals with prejudice through the metaphor of differently coloured flowers. Ms. Grant would be happy to supply parents with further details if you would like to purchase any of Ms. Cook's work. Renowned educator Mr. Lance King visited DCB again and gave a powerful presentation on 'Resilience - Learning To Fail Well'. It is crucial that our students do not think that success comes easily and we hope that they will treat failure as part of the learning and improvement process. It was pleasing to see so many parents at these presentations. I am also grateful to Mr. Mumford, who gave several briefings to Early Years parents across different campuses and Key Stages, and to Ms. Grant and Mr. Nichol, who organised an Open Morning for prospective parents to gain insight into the Junior School's 'Creative Curriculum', which provides academic rigour through the promotion of topic links and innovative thinking.

It was a pleasure for Helen and me to host a drinks party for the academic leadership teams from the three schools at our home on Thursday. This provided a chance to say thank you to them for all their hard work and inspiration. We are very lucky to have such talented and dynamic people working so tirelessly for DCB.

Finally, we enjoyed the annual pleasure of the Year 13 Leavers' Assembly on Wednesday this week. Well done to all performers, who showcased such a wealth of talent. We wish all our Year 13s the best for the examinations and look forward to the Graduation Dinner and Ceremony.

I hope you have a good weekend.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

REGISTER FOR THE NEW DCP CLUBFOOTBALL SKILLS LEAGUE!

DCP (Dulwich Community Programmes) is pleased to announce that, in cooperation with ClubFootball, we will run a new football skills league programme for Junior School students on Mondays from 24 April, 2017!

ClubFootball Skills Leagues are level 2 of ClubFootball's 3-level Football Development Programme and are open to boys and girls who already have basic skills and are ready to progress to a more match-oriented type of training programme. In the 120 minutes of training every Monday, students will receive a first half of technical training, and a second half of match play.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of seventeen aspirational objectives created by the United Nations to ensure the wellbeing of all global citizens. The SDG club at Dulwich College Beijing has been striving to achieve as many of these goals as possible. At school, we are constantly trying to initiate small projects that can have big impacts.

Number 13 on this agenda is climate action, which ties in to respect for the environment and reduction of waste. The daily use of disposable paper cups (which tend to be single use) produces a significant amount of waste on a daily basis, almost all of which is not recycled. In the 2015-2016 academic year, the DCB community used over 300,000 paper cups, the majority being used a single time.

As a whole school initiative, students will find that upon returning from spring break, there will no longer be any paper cups around campus. A one-week grace period will be given as a transition and as of Monday April 17th, 2017 please be advised that the DCB campus will not be providing paper cups at any of the water dispensers.

Students are strongly advised to start bringing reusable, named water bottles on a daily basis. This is so that paper waste isn't created every time we need a drink. This may be slightly inconvenient, but we are striving to improve our school environment. By reducing everyday waste here at school, DCB can take a small step in contributing to protecting our planet.

Thank you for your cooperation.

The SDG club

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an updated version of our 2017/18 calendar.

Masters in Technology (MIT) is a student-led club consisting of 20 students from Years 11 - 13 that actively promotes the proficient use of technology within the school community. We are delighted to announce that they will be hosting a series of workshops aimed to assist parents in efficiently using various forms of technology with regards to areas of popular interest.

The arts scene has been sparkling again this week, from visual arts to musical performance and drama. I would like to commend Mr. Bangay, Mr. Stewart, Ms. Knowles and all the Year 13 artists for the superb IB Art Exhibition which takes pride of place in our main atrium. Please do come and see the fine pieces, which are the result of two years' development of ideas and concepts from our outstanding students. The themes are extraordinarily mature and the work of a very high quality. Well done to all!

On Wednesday night our Year 10 drama students excelled themselves through their 'scripted performances'. These are original scripts chosen by the students. Each small group of students performed in front of peers, parents and staff. It was a thrilling evening and no theme was too dark or off limits for these courageous young actors. Mr. Randall and Ms. Davies also deserve our thanks for their dedication and expertise in crafting and refining each performance.

I think you would agree that performing in front of others is a daunting prospect for many students. Failing along the way is inevitable and important, as is the ability to bounce back. This is why we at Dulwich place such value on resilience. I would like to draw your attention to a presentation for parents on 12th April from Mr. Lance King, internationally renowned author and educator. He has spoken at Dulwich before and was very well received. He will ask the question, 'How can parents support their children so that they too can see challenges as opportunity and setbacks as springboards to success?' I would recommend this presentation to you. Please see our Upcoming Events section for more details.

On Tuesday evening, we were treated to a musical extravaganza from the Saxophone Quartet, Big Band, Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra. All our music teachers were involved, whether playing, conducting or compering. Ms. Bonner was particularly active and popped up everywhere. It is difficult to select highlights, as the musicianship was all of the highest quality and we heard such a wonderful range, from Stevie Wonder, James Brown and Game of Thrones theme, to Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. I think three soloists deserve special mention for their confident and expert performances: Jason Ryu on trombone in Gershwin's 'I Got Rhythm', William Chen on violin in Saint-Saën's 'Danse Macabre' and Jack Lim on drums in Prima's 'Sing Sing Sing' and Romberg's 'Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise'.

It is affirming to be part of a network of schools, with supportive and like-minded colleagues. This week, on Friday, I shall be in Shanghai celebrating the opening of Dulwich College Shanghai Minhang. We wish our colleagues in Shanghai the greatest of success.

Finally, I would like to share some very good news. Last weekend, Julinna Wu went to Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Young Writers of the Year Award ceremony. Julinna was the only DCB child to be shortlisted for any of the coveted awards in the Fiction 1 (under 8 years old) category, which is an achievement in itself. However, not only was Julinna's entry, 'Murder in Old Shanghai', good enough to be shortlisted from hundreds of entries, it went one stage further and won! This is an absolutely outstanding achievement and we are all very proud of Julinna. Please see the Junior School newsletter for the full 'short' story.

I hope you and your families enjoy a wonderful Spring Break. Please remember that 10th April is a professional learning and development day for staff at DCB, so the students should return on the 11th, in their summer uniform.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

From Students in SDG Club: Paper Cups in DCB

Dear Dulwich Community,

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of seventeen aspirational objectives created by the United Nations to ensure the wellbeing of all global citizens. The SDG club at Dulwich College Beijing has been striving to achieve as many of these goals as possible. At school, we are constantly trying to initiate small projects that can have big impacts.

Number 13 on this agenda is climate action, which ties in to respect for the environment and reduction of waste. The daily use of disposable paper cups (which tend to be single use) produces a significant amount of waste on a daily basis, almost all of which is not recycled. In the 2015-2016 academic year, the DCB community used over 300,000 paper cups, the majority being used a single time.

As a whole school initiative, students will find that upon returning from spring break, there will no longer be any paper cups around campus. A one-week grace period will be given as a transition and as of Monday April 17th, 2017 please be advised that the DCB campus will not be providing paper cups at any of the water dispensers.

Students are strongly advised to start bringing reusable, named water bottles on a daily basis. This is so that paper waste isn't created every time we need a drink. This may be slightly inconvenient, but we are striving to improve our school environment. By reducing everyday waste here at school, DCB can take a small step in contributing to protecting our planet.

Thank you for your cooperation.

The SDG club

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an updated version of our 2017/18 calendar.

Masters in Technology (MIT) is a student-led club consisting of 20 students from Years 11 - 13 that actively promotes the proficient use of technology within the school community. We are delighted to announce that they will be hosting a series of workshops aimed to assist parents in efficiently using various forms of technology with regards to areas of popular interest.

The week started in a hugely positive way, with a visit from the Director of Cambridge Maths, Mrs. Lynne McClure. Lynne is a friend with whom I worked at my last school, who now has the role of developing a UK government funded Cambridge global Maths curriculum for the 21st century. Before arriving at DCB, Lynne met with her Chinese counterpart, who is responsible for the Maths curriculum throughout China. Lynne was determined to hear directly about the international award winning Maths project developed here. I therefore introduced her to Camille Brown (Head of Senior School Maths) and Chris Stanley (Senior School Deputy Head). My thanks to Camille and Chris for sharing ideas and linking in so successfully.

On the subject of Maths, some of our Junior School students have excelled themselves. Four children from Year 6 attended the two day Maths FOBISIA competition in Kuala Lumpur, accompanied by Miss Haldane and Mr. Hennessy. The DCB team, composed of Victor Yin, Henry Zhang, Tess Hunter and Duncan Leung, came first out of 36 schools. Miss Haldane says, 'This was a fantastic team who worked collaboratively, drawing upon each other's skills.' Very well done to all!

We often mention to parents that our Dulwich students like to lead and take responsibility. I am pleased to say that this was the case again last weekend. The 'China Young Entrepreneurs Association' Startup Competition, organised by Ian Dong and Edward Schamp, with assistance from Tony Chan, Brandon Pang, Joe Sakakibara, and Jun Ha Youn, was a tremendous success. There were several schools present, including BWYA, BCIS, Keystone Academy, Beijing No. 80 High School and Beijing No. 2 High School. The competitors debated, presented, discussed and learned so much about business and entrepreneurship. The highlight, said Mr. Newman (Senior School Head of Economics and Business), were the links made with US universities MIT and Stanford, whose representatives gave feedback to students on their business pitches.

The arts scene has been thriving this week, with Mr. Heath's College-wide celebration of World Poetry Day on Tuesday, with all staff encouraged to read aloud or play the recording of Ted Hughes reading his poem, 'The Thought Fox'. On Wednesday and Thursday evenings, audiences enjoyed an adventurous and powerful piece of drama, 'The Red Shoes', performed solely by Key Stage 3 actors and actresses. The choreography, musical accompaniment and direction were first rate. All the actors and actresses performed with great maturity and made the hard-working director, Miss Davies, very proud.

I hope you and your families enjoy a relaxing weekend.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

From Admissions Office: Re-enrollment

The re-enrollment period for the 2017-2018 academic year is taking place now! Parents please be reminded that you need to inform the school if your child(ren) are not returning to DCB in the 2017/2018 academic year by Friday 31 March.

Your child will automatically be admitted to the College for the 2017-2018 school year unless we receive notification of withdrawal from the family indicating otherwise. Any changes in payment arrangement, passport information, visa status and/or bus service can to be emailed to DulwichReenrolment@dulwich-beijing.cn. If your child(ren) will not be attending DCB please complete the Withdrawal Form and email it to DulwichReenrolment@dulqich-beijing.cn or submit it to our Admissions Office. New sibling applications can be found on our website or in Admissions Office. Again, the deadline to reply is 31st March 2017.

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an updated version of our 2017/18 calendar.

Masters in Technology (MIT) is a student-led club consisting of 20 students from Years 11 - 13 that actively promotes the proficient use of technology within the school community. We are delighted to announce that they will be hosting a series of workshops aimed to assist parents in efficiently using various forms of technology with regards to areas of popular interest.

On Thursday we welcomed some important educational visitors to our Legend Garden Campus. Mr. Huang Kan, Vice Director of Beijing Municipal Education Commission, and Mr. Ren Jun, Deputy Director of the International Collaboration & Exchange Division within the Commission, came to discover more about Dulwich. They are responsible for the international schools within the Commission and it was an honour that they spoke so highly of DCB.

We offered our guests a tour, a presentation in the Boardroom and introduced them to some teachers and students, who were as impressive as ever! Mr. Huang and Mr. Ren both commented on the values and ethos of the College and how our holistic and pastoral aims help the students succeed. They enjoyed hearing our plans and agreed to help us develop partnerships and collaborations with more schools in Beijing, including Chinese local schools and Chinese international schools. I would like to thank Becky Jing, Xiaoxiao Qin and Crystal Yang from our Government Relations team for organising the event so efficiently.

On the subject of collaboration with other schools, two events last weekend exemplify this and indicate how our students are already benefiting. Firstly, last Sunday, twelve DCB students, Ms. Chou and Mr. West joined forces with students and teachers from WAB, YCIS, ISB, Keystone and the Central Conservatory of Music Middle School to form the Beijing International Youth Symphony Orchestra. They rehearsed on Sunday 5th and 12th March, and performed a concert at 4pm on Sunday 12th March. Secondly, last weekend also saw the Association of Global Debating Spring Invitational tournament take place at DCB for the second time. This event drew in over 130 elite debaters from across China, all ready to pit their skills against each other. Courage, high level competition, rhetorical skills and teamwork were the order of the day. It was a thrilling time for our debaters, who enjoyed meeting their peers from schools such as Tsinghua International, Beijing No. 55, Beijing Linchuan Yuren, the High School Affiliated to Fudan University, Shanghai Third Girls' High School and Yinchuan First Middle School, to name a few. The Dulwich students made us proud, as can be seen in Mr.Hawkins' newsletter.

Our Junior School students have been busy improving their culinary skills and nutritional knowledge through a visit from UK chef Darren Tinkler and his team. 'Putting The Fun Back Into Food', an event organised by our caterers, Chartwells, showed how to keep meals balanced, healthy and tasty.

On other health matters, the testing of the new AQI system is ongoing and I am pleased to say that on Thursday, which was not a pleasant day outside, all machinery was functioning very well indeed inside the building and we enjoyed excellent filtration. We are keeping our eyes on this and I am sure you are checking the online rates within the College from time to time – please contact Mr. Barton or me if you have any questions.

Well done to all our Year 4 students for a delightful version of Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' on Thursday evening. The children regaled us with their humorous take on this charming woodland play full of spells, fairies and misunderstandings. We thank Mr. Corben and his team of Year 4 teachers for working so hard with the students and producing such a fun performance.

Have a good weekend and a happy St. Patrick's Day if you are reading this on Friday. I am reliably informed that the Gaelic message would be "Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhaoibh!"

I look forward to seeing you at the Headmaster's Forum on Tuesday 21 March 2017 at 9am in Edward Alleyn Theatre. Please RSVP to Nina.Zhou@dulwich-beijing.cn by Monday 20 March.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

From Admissions Office: Re-enrollment

The re-enrollment period for the 2017-2018 academic year is taking place now! Parents please be reminded that you need to inform the school if your child(ren) are not returning to DCB in the 2017/2018 academic year by Friday 31 March.

Your child will automatically be admitted to the College for the 2017-2018 school year unless we receive notification of withdrawal from the family indicating otherwise. Any changes in payment arrangement, passport information, visa status and/or bus service can to be emailed to DulwichReenrolment@dulwich-beijing.cn. If your child(ren) will not be attending DCB please complete the Withdrawal Form and email it to DulwichReenrolment@dulqich-beijing.cn or submit it to our Admissions Office. New sibling applications can be found on our website or in Admissions Office. Again, the deadline to reply is 31st March 2017.

Dulwich Science and Art Photography Competition

Student, staff and alumni from all the Dulwich College International schools participated in the third annual Science and Art Photography Competition. The competition challenged entrants to represent science through art in the context of the following categories: Active Animals Living Plants Man and the Environment Science in Action New Beginnings.Please see winning photos from DCB below. Congratulations to all winners!

In order to give our Key Stage 3 students the limelight to show just how creative, disciplined and mature actors they are, we decided not only have KS3 actors, but KS3 dancers, lighting technicians, sound technicians, set designers, set creators, back stage crew and a 5 piece band! Kneehigh's version of the Red Shoes is based on a poem by Anna Maria Murphy, and the lilting of the words echos the dancing nature of the story throughout. The themes of the play are dark and the ensemble style of the piece requires.

Wear Red Shoes and Win a Prize! To add even more fun to the night, we have some special prizes prepared for all who put some extra effort to their evening attire and wear red shoes to the show!

Masters in Technology Parent Workshops: Please Send Us Your Feedback!

Masters in Technology (MIT) is a student-led club consisting of 20 students from Years 11 - 13 that actively promotes the proficient use of technology within the school community. We are delighted to announce that they will be hosting a series of workshops aimed to assist parents in efficiently using various forms of technology with regards to areas of popular interest.

I thoroughly enjoyed my weekly visit to Little Riviera and Riviera Main Campus on Thursday. The children were lively, engaged and a delight to be with as usual. The learning was exciting and fast paced; I especially noticed how the work of our Teaching Assistants is invaluable in providing language enrichment in the classrooms.

At our Legend Garden Campus, our Year 13s were treated to some brilliant tuition from their teachers during the 'English Retreat' last Saturday. Mr. Heath and his team of Year 13 teachers all gave insightful lessons on the literature studied in the IB course. From Gabriel García Márquez, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, to George Orwell, Marjane Satrapi and more, each class focused on exam guidance and deep diving into the literature. The students were receptive, collaborative and very grateful to their teachers. Well done to all.

Today I have been at the FOBISIA Heads' Business Meeting. Fortunately, I did not have to travel far, as the meeting took place in Beijing this year. We discussed sporting competitions, major events and how to deal with critical incidents. In the meantime, also on Friday, the Senior School held an Open Morning. I am grateful to the senior school leadership for organising this and to the teachers for being willing to welcome so many visiting parents. Dulwich College Beijing is certainly proving to be a popular place to visit.

Last week saw the majority of work on the fresh air units completed and, as you will see from the monitored results via the website ( https://qlear.build/201670?local=en ), the PM2.5 levels are well under the guidelines desired by the World Health Organisation. We are currently in a full testing phase, not just at the Legend Garden Campus but also at Riviera Main Campus and Little Riviera. Please rest assured that we shall check that our systems function perfectly whilst also ensuring that we are environmentally aware and energy efficient.

Have a good weekend. Enjoy the warmer weather.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

Individual Photos for New Students and All Toddlers Next Week

Individual photographs for all new students who joined us after October 2016 and individual and class photos for our Toddlers classes will be taken next week.

Please see the schedule below and refer to our email for more details:

Date: Thursday, 16th March

Time: 8.30am - 3.00pm

Venue: Legend Garden Campus

Date: Friday, 17th March

Time: 9.00am -10.20am

Venue: Little Riviera

Time: 10.30am-12.00pm

Venue: Riviera Main Campus

From Admissions Office: Re-enrollment

The re-enrollment period for the 2017-2018 academic year is taking place now! Parents please be reminded that you need to inform the school if your child(ren) are not returning to DCB in the 2017/2018 academic year by Friday 31 March.

Your child will automatically be admitted to the College for the 2017-2018 school year unless we receive notification of withdrawal from the family indicating otherwise. Any changes in payment arrangement, passport information, visa status and/or bus service can to be emailed to DulwichReenrolment@dulwich-beijing.cn. If your child(ren) will not be attending DCB please complete the Withdrawal Form and email it to DulwichReenrolment@dulwich-beijing.cn or submit it to our Admissions Office. New sibling applications can be found on our website or in Admissions Office. Again, the deadline to reply is 31st March 2017.

Dulwich Science and Art Photography Competition

Student, staff and alumni from all the Dulwich College International schools participated in the third annual Science and Art Photography Competition. The competition challenged entrants to represent science through art in the context of the following categories: Active Animals Living Plants Man and the Environment Science in Action New Beginnings.Please see winning photos from DCB below. Congratulations to all winners!

In order to give our Key Stage 3 students the limelight to show just how creative, disciplined and mature actors they are, we decided not only have KS3 actors, but KS3 dancers, lighting technicians, sound technicians, set designers, set creators, back stage crew and a 5 piece band! Kneehigh's version of the Red Shoes is based on a poem by Anna Maria Murphy, and the lilting of the words echos the dancing nature of the story throughout. The themes of the play are dark and the ensemble style of the piece requires.

Masters in Technology Parent Workshops: Please Send Us Your Feedback!

Masters in Technology (MIT) is a student-led club consisting of 20 students from Years 11 - 13 that actively promotes the proficient use of technology within the school community. We are delighted to announce that they will be hosting a series of workshops aimed to assist parents in efficiently using various forms of technology with regards to areas of popular interest.

This week it was the turn of our Junior School to hold an Open Morning. Thank you to Ms. Grant, Mr. Nichol and all our Junior School teachers for opening their classrooms to our visitors. Feedback was very positive and the visiting parents went away with a clear view of our ethos, values and curriculum.

Our Wodehouse Theatre has been a hive of activity. Last weekend saw the entertaining ISTA Drama Festival, in which sixteen of our students collaborated with peers from other schools and performed some beautifully choreographed and moving pieces. On Thursday evening the stage was lit again, this time for a charity fashion show, organised by Year 12 students Akriti Purohit and Brendan Fosh. The students put on a great show and were supported by enthusiastic staff, all wearing eye catching outfits. Most importantly, money was raised for a worthy cause: Educating Girls in Rural China. We were honoured to welcome the directors of this charity for the evening. Well done to Akriti and Brendan for taking the lead on this.

In the Senior School, four Chemistry students have reached the final of the Royal Society of Chemistry Competition, beating 600 teams across China. We wish Emily Li, Shenyi Cui, Soomin Hwang and Andrew Park the best of luck on the 25th and 26th March. Well done to the students and their teachers.

Thank you to those parents who completed the recent survey from the Dulwich International Group. Your time is appreciated and you will receive full and unadulterated feedback. As a parent myself, I expect to receive feedback when I have spent time giving my views, so the survey results will be communicated to you in full very soon. Teachers and students (from Years 5 to 13) also completed the survey, so we shall consider all the feedback carefully and make adjustments to our practice and service where necessary. Our aim is to offer the very best in international education, and constructive criticism is always welcome. Of course, a snapshot survey can only go so far and we hope that you will not wait for a survey to express your concern or indeed satisfaction with regard to your child's education.

For the weekly update on air quality, the message from Mr Barton, our Director of Business Administration, is that work has progressed through evenings and weekends and will be finished soon. There are still some heating and cooling units to complete that will help us regulate temperatures. Testing will take place to ensure full confidence in the system. Riviera Main Campus and Little Riviera will also receive attention, although we are pleased to see that they are already performing highly with regard to pollution proofing.

Have a good weekend.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and an updated version of our 2017/18 calendar.

In order to give our Key Stage 3 students the limelight to show just how creative, disciplined and mature actors they are, we decided not only have KS3 actors, but KS3 dancers, lighting technicians, sound technicians, set designers, set creators, back stage crew and a 5 piece band! Kneehigh's version of the Red Shoes is based on a poem by Anna Maria Murphy, and the lilting of the words echos the dancing nature of the story throughout. The themes of the play are dark and the ensemble style of the piece requires

Masters in Technology Parent Workshops: Please Send Us Your Feedback!

Masters in Technology (MIT) is a student-led club consisting of 20 students from Years 11 - 13 that actively promotes the proficient use of technology within the school community. We are delighted to announce that they will be hosting a series of workshops aimed to assist parents in efficiently using various forms of technology with regards to areas of popular interest.

I am delighted to report that the International Schools Choral Music Society concerts at DCB and at the Forbidden City Concert Hall were a huge success. The students from DCB and nineteen other international schools worked tirelessly and happily as they collaborated and expressed their creativity during the two and a half days of rehearsals. The Big Band Concert on Friday night saw Mike Vax, acclaimed US jazz trumpeting legend, drive the students to extraordinary musical heights, with hits ranging from Gershwin's 'I Got Rhythm' to Procol Harum's 'Whiter Shade of Pale'. Saturday evening's concert, which showpieced the choir, big band and orchestra, provided treat after treat for the audience. These included pieces by Brahms, Vaughan Williams, Rutter and Berlioz, and even the world première of double Grammy Award winning composer Christopher Tin's, 'A Bird Came Down the Walk'.

All the students relished the opportunity to rehearse at DCB with talented and dedicated practitioners, and we thank Martin Adams, Mike Vax, Bob Hasty and Richard Gill for giving so generously of their time to inspire a new generation of musicians. To achieve such a high level of performance in front of an audience of hundreds, after such a short time practising together, was wonderful and we must thank all the music teachers and guest practitioners for their dedication. In addition, I would like to reiterate my thanks to our marketing and communications department and also to our Director of Performing Arts, Mr. Paul West, and his team for their conscientious and meticulous preparations.

Tuesday 21st February was a special day in Early Years as they celebrated a hundred days of being in school. All the classes celebrated '100 Day' from Reception to Year Two at the Riviera Main Campus, and Nursery and Toddlers at the Little Riviera Campus. These campuses were chosen as purpose built Early Years sites, offering the best facilities for such a child-centered day. As Mr. Mumford said, 'It was fantastic to see the imagination, thought and effort that had gone into the day from the teaching staff. The result was a wonderful coming together of excited and very engaged children across Early Years doing what they love to do best… learning through play.' The photos below show the construction of the Chinese symbol for 100, made from 3D pyramids.

I am currently in Suzhou at the Heads' Steering Group Meeting. This has been a useful opportunity to discuss exciting projects across the Dulwich International Schools. We have also focused on the use of IT in our classrooms and how technology can allow our students to be innovative and express their creativity. I look forward to reporting back to the leadership teams at DCB.

The new air quality ducting looks to be having a very positive effect. Last Sunday was a busy day for finalizing the ducting in several areas and the benefits of this should be obvious when results are analysed. Mr. Barton is working closely with the contractors to ensure the highest of standards and we shall provide an update on progress for you next week.

Have a good weekend.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and 2017/18 calendar.

On Thursday 2 March, DCB will host its first ever charity fashion show in the Wodehouse Theatre! The show will feature both student and teacher models, and has been organised entirely by IB students. All proceeds from the event will go towards the Canadian charity Educating Girls of Rural China (EGRC), which helps fund teenage girls' high school and college educations in Gansu province. Get ready to witness a truly spectacular event and take part in a most worthy cause!

In order to give our Key Stage 3 students the limelight to show just how creative, disciplined and mature actors they are, we decided not only have KS3 actors, but KS3 dancers, lighting technicians, sound technicians, set designers, set creators, back stage crew and a 5 piece band! Kneehigh's version of the Red Shoes is based on a poem by Anna Maria Murphy, and the lilting of the words echos the dancing nature of the story throughout. The themes of the play are dark and the ensemble style of the piece requires

Last weekend saw the excellent Dulwich International Model United Nations (DIMUN) event take place for the seventh year at Dulwich College Beijing. There are several reasons why this is one of our favourite events of the year at DCB. First, it is student led, in all aspects of its organisation and logistics; second, it involves cooperation with many other international schools; and third, it encourages risk-taking, public speaking and active listening to others. This year there were twelve international schools present, including representation from Manila, Seoul, Shanghai and Tianjin, and over 200 students. The theme was 'Migration' which was certainly apt and provoked interesting speeches throughout the weekend. I cannot speak highly enough of the work put into this from our students, in particular Yi Wen Lee, Jenny Kim and Jackel Cheung, who have all received official commendations.

This week is just as active, with the preparations and rehearsals in place for the International Schools Choral Music Society concerts, which are due to take place at DCB this evening and at the Forbidden City Concert Hall on Saturday. The photo below shows a rehearsal conducted by double Grammy Award winning composer Christopher Tin. There is a real buzz around the College as we welcome our guests from many other schools and engage in so much collaboration and creativity. I wish Mr. West, his team and all participants the very best for Friday and Saturday and I look forward to reporting on this next week.

Also this week we have enjoyed visits from several members of the Dulwich College International Group. Mr. Brian McDouall, our Director of Schools, informed me that this may be his last visit to Beijing. Although we are of course aware that Mr. McDouall is retiring this year, it was still a shock to think that the DCB founding Headmaster, whom many of you know so well, will not return. Many of our teachers and administrators, who were privileged to serve under his leadership, have said some teary farewells, and also gathered for a re-union photograph taken with Brian.

Last night, Helen and I represented DCB at the Diplomats' Awards Dinner organised by the Global Times. We collected a prize in the category 'Best International School in Beijing'. On the same evening, our Director of Business Administration Mr. Shaun Barton, and his wife Sylvia, headed to the British Embassy to attend an event commemorating the 45th anniversary of UK-China links. Three of our music students (Alex Jiang on violin, Nina Toh on flute and Amanda Ding on piano) provided the classical entertainment during the evening and were accompanied by Mr. Balcombe (not musically!).

Our CEO, Mr. Guertler, along with our former and current Bursars Mr. Allan and Mr. Barton joined me in meeting with four parents from our air quality task force on Thursday. We discussed the progress made across all areas of the campus. We are delighted by the current results and we are not complacent. We are determined that all work still to be completed will achieve the best possible results. Mr. Guertler reinforced the DCI message that student wellbeing is placed at the forefront of all decision making. The ducting at Legend Garden will be completed by 2nd March, as will the upgrade to both Riviera main Campus and Little Riviera. There is ongoing work to perfect airlocks and ensure that heating and cooling units are functioning at their best. We are not forgetting CO2 and there will be a full audit of levels throughout the College shortly after all ducting is complete.

On another point of information for parents: you will have received a link to a survey. We sincerely hope that you will take a few minutes to complete this. The same satisfaction survey is going to parents of all Dulwich International Schools. We welcome your feedback and will be responding to this in due course.

I look forward to seeing many of you at the Forbidden City Concert Hall tomorrow evening for ISCMS. Let the music begin…

Have a good weekend.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Notifications

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and 2017/18 calendar.

On Thursday 2 March, DCB will host its first ever charity fashion show in the Wodehouse Theatre! The show will feature both student and teacher models, and has been organised entirely by IB students. All proceeds from the event will go towards the Canadian charity Educating Girls of Rural China (EGRC), which helps fund teenage girls' high school and college educations in Gansu province. Get ready to witness a truly spectacular event and take part in a most worthy cause!

Due to technical changes to our system, this week's newsletter does not contain separate tabs. As such, please scroll down to see the latest news from Senior School, Junior School, and Early Years. We apologise for the inconvenience.

From the Headmaster

Dear Parents,

I hope that you enjoyed the Chinese New Year break, wherever you were. Xin nian kuaile! All is well in the College and the students have arrived back looking well refreshed and ready to throw themselves into work, ECAs and all aspects of DCB life.

To start this week's newsletter, I am happy to announce that an important Junior School leader celebrated a special birthday this week! We shall not reveal a lady's age but will simply say that Ms. Grant enjoyed many treats on Wednesday, including a whole school rendition of "Happy Birthday" from the Junior School students, and bouquets of flowers on the steps of the main entrance. It is impossible to sum up just how much Ms. Grant has given to the Junior School and the warmth of the community on her big day was a delight to see. The paparazzi were present, as can be seen below:

On another positive note, I am delighted to let you know that Dulwich College Beijing was awarded British International School of the Year for Teaching Initiative. We were informed during the holiday that our Blended Maths project, initiated by Mr. Stanley and now led by Ms. Brown, gained first place among all the global nominations. Well done to the team and a clear affirmation that at Dulwich, teachers and students can take risks, trial new ideas and show creativity. Here is a picture of the team collecting the award in London.

Another member of staff who recently displayed some obvious Dulwich values is Mr. Hogarth. I discovered that during the holiday he ran the Las Palmas Marathon in Gran Canaria and completed the 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometres) in a personal best of 2 hours 59 minutes, finishing the race in 37th place! That is seriously fast and we are surprised he is still smiling in the photo below which was taken in the middle of the race. Well done Mr. Hogarth and good luck in the Great Wall Marathon in May.

Our air quality measures are advancing steadily and results continue to be very pleasing. We have a task force meeting with parents next week and will provide updates on the ongoing ducting work.

Also next week, as I hope you know, we have the special International Schools Choral Music Society (ISCMS) concerts, which we have the privilege to be hosting this year. Friday night's concert will take place at DCB and on Saturday we shall be at the magnificent Forbidden City Concert Hall. If you enjoy statistics, here are a few which might convince you to attend:

361: The number of performers on the Forbidden City Stage at the 2017 Gala Concert

52: The number of participants from Dulwich College Beijing

20: The number of schools participating in ISCMS 2017

1204: The number of bottles of water performers will be provided with on Concert Day

21: The number of hours the performers will spend rehearsing in the 3 days leading up to the Gala Concert

107: The number of players in the ISCMS Symphony Orchestra 2017

235: The number of singers in the ISCMS Gala Chorus

1400: The number of audience seats in the Forbidden City Concert Hall

2: The number of Grammy Awards won by this year's commissioned composer, Christopher Tin

2: The number of World Premières being performed at the 2017 Gala Concert

308: The number of strings attached to the Violins, Violas, Cellos and Double Basses on stage this year

88: The number of music stands required at the 2017 Gala Concert

2088 (and counting!): The number of emails Paul West has sent about the 2017 Gala Concert

Tickets are now officially on sale for the International Schools Music Choral Society (ISCMS) Gala Concert taking place at the spectacular Forbidden City Concert Hall on Saturday 18 February! The tenth anniversary festival, hosted by DCB, will feature three days of intense music making for over 300 students from international schools around Asia, all culminating with a remarkable concert at the renowned venue.

This year, the ISCMS Orchestra will be conducted by Robert Hasty – a celebrated conductor from Chicago. The ISCMS Chorus will be conducted by Richard Gill, one of Australia's most important choir directors, and the ISCMS Big Band will be led by exuberant, world-renowned trumpeter Mike Vax. Two-time Grammy Award Winning Composer Christopher Tin has written a piece especially for the Festival – and will be working with the Choir and Orchestra in the World Premiere at the Gala Concert.

Get your tickets now before they sell out – this is student music making of a professional standard, and a fantastic programme for all to enjoy!

It's still cold! Please make sure your child has a hat, gloves, thick coat and suitable shoes for the cold weather.

Dear Parents,

A warm welcome back after the Chinese New Year holiday. Happy New Year in the Year of the Rooster!

Assemblies

This week's assemblies were presented by our newest teacher recruit to Early Years, Heather Wright. Her assemblies on both campuses were fantastic and the children loved them. The theme was 'love reading and love your library'. She introduced us to her 'Librarian Hat', a clever hat made out of a book, and then asked the children what a Librarian did. There were some interesting answers. The teachers were then asked why they loved reading, which acted as a great incentive to the children as they could see how enthusiastic teachers are about books. Later, the children were asked to guess the names of book characters. They were very good!

Finally, Heather asked them what books they'd like most to add to the Library collection.

This week's learning focus is how we use our Maths areas. This week, we feature Maths areas at the Riviera Campus

Teachers at Dulwich are highly skilled in delivering a rich and engaging maths curriculum to our children. Each classroom has a designated Maths Area. Children will use the Maths Area in a variety of ways. The Maths Learning Wall supports independent learning and enquiry. Rich, child-initiated displays provide a useful guide for pupils and act as a memory aid for embedding learning. The Maths area provides opportunities for children to investigate higher level Maths challenges and communicate their understanding through Maths pictures, written explanations and discussion of their work.

The Maths curriculum is delivered in a range of ways. Pupils receive direct teaching on key mathematical skills. In addition, they also participate in carefully planned Maths Flow activities to embed learning and develop higher level thinking.

In one photo you can see children learning through sand play. The children estimated the number of spoons of sand it would take to fill the tube and carefully checked their estimation by counting the spoons aloud. They discussed how accurate their estimation was.

In another photo we can see a child using her knowledge of number and place value to reassemble a 100 square. The child was encouraged to explain her problem solving decisions to an adult, demonstrating her understanding of number.

To find out more about Maths in Dulwich Early Years, please come to our Maths workshop on the 28th February. Details to follow.

In the photos here children are using the Maths Area to make shapes. This little boy made a diamond shape with scissors ! The children in the other photo were counting numbers collaboratively and actively, using number pads and making full use of the space in class.

Art Gallery

This week, Mr Dong's Artists are creating Chinese opera masks together. The opera masks are on display in Riviera Main Campus and will soon be seen in Legend Garden Campus.

TOP TEACHER TIPS

For your child's well-being, manage the amount of screen time your child has with electronic devices. Too much time will not help them properly relax, sleep and rest their brain !

I hope that you all enjoyed the festivities of Chinese New Year and had a happy, healthy and peaceful break. Happy Year of the Rooster.

Junior School Value

This week the Junior School value changed to Courage. The children have asked themselves, "If you are forced to do something brave, is that courageous?"

This Week

Welcome

Junior School would like to welcome Alicia Sirles who joined us this week as the fourth teacher in the EAL department. Alicia comes from Texas USA, where she has been teaching EAL before venturing on her first overseas post to DCB. Ms Sirles will be working with Year 5 and Year 6 students for the remainder of the year.

PE Change Of Sport

All Junior School children changed sports in their Games lessons this week. They started to learn the skills and techniques of basketball and in their PE lessons the children will either learn swimming or table tennis. Please ensure that your child has the correct kit on both PE and Games days. I would also like to remind you that children should provide a doctor's note if they are missing PE or Games lessons.

Year 3 Super Start - Our World Rocks

To begin our new topic, Year 3 dressed up as Cave people for the day. They spent their English lesson listening to Caveman Steve being interviewed – he is a most intriguing character who has a strong appetite for hunting as well as eating all kinds of wild animals. Our goal is to be able to learn about the life of cave people so we can write a diary entry...

Year 4 Electrifying Inventions

Year 4 are excited to announce that they have started their new topic 'Electrifying Inventions'. They began their topic by exploring a range of weird and wonderful inventions ranging from chopsticks with fans to slippers with headlights. After that, they discussed each one to decide whether it was positive, negative or interesting. During our topic, everyone will have the opportunity to create their own inventions and we are full of ideas!

Year 5 'Blast Off' Stunning Start

Year 5 enjoyed a day full of activity for their 'Blast Off' Stunning Start on Tuesday. The children worked collaboratively on three art projects: drawing a mural, making papier mache planets and creating a display of the planets. In the kitchen the students were busy making space rock cakes. This involved following a recipe and decorating using a space theme. In the following weeks they will learn more about the orbit of the Earth, countries that competed to race to the Moon and work on a group project about the planets. If there are any parents who work in related fields and would be willing to present to the children, please contact the Year 5 team.

NEXT WEEK

ECAs

I would like to remind you that ECAs will start next week on Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th February and will run for 7 weeks until the last week of term. You should have received a list of activities on offer by email and instructions on how to sign up online to choose the ECAs. All children should have chosen their activities and if they have not yet done so they need to let their class teachers know.

ISCMS

From Wednesday 15th to Saturday 18th February, DCB is hosting the 10th ISCMS Festival. Over 300 students (50 from DCB) from 20 different international schools will be rehearsing hard for the Gala Concert which will be held on the Saturday evening. This is an excellent opportunity for students to hear amazing music in a live setting and it would be great to see Junior School students coming along to be inspired in their own future music making.

The final concert, on Saturday 18th February, will be held at the Forbidden City Concert Hall. The music includes a world premiere of a work by Christopher Tin (who wrote Baba Yetu and has two Grammy awards for his music used in the game Civilisation IV: Calling All Dawns). There will also be orchestral music such as Brahms' Academic Festival Overture and Berlioz's Hungarian March, and two huge works for choir and orchestra - Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music and Rutter's Gloria. You can register for tickets on YooPay at https://yoopay.cn/event/ISCMSXGala2017VIP

Please come along and support the DCB Music Department and all the musicians at this wonderful event. If you have any questions please contact me at nina.haynes@dulwich-beijing.cn

Inter-House Verse Speaking Competition

All children will need to choose a poem this weekend or early next week so that they will have time to learn it in order to perform the poem from memory in their classes during the week beginning 20th February. A winner from each class will be chosen to go into the Year Group Final. The year group winners will then be congratulated in the Newsletter and will perform in our Book Week assembly.

Year 3 Charity Day

On Friday the 17th February Year 3 will hold their Charity event to raise money for the Jing Cai migrant school. For this event all Junior School children are invited to wear Pyjamas to school. They will also need up to 30 RMB as a donation. This will include 10 RMB to wear pyjamas, 10 RMB to watch a short Pixar or Disney clip at lunch time and 10 RMB to enjoy popcorn! 3RH and 3AG will then arrange a time to visit the Jing Cai migrant school to deliver their donation.

Culture Speakers – Volunteers Needed

We currently have parent volunteers to be culture speakers in school and give talks about Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. However, we are still looking for a parent or friend with specific knowledge of Islam, Sikhism and Judaism. If you follow one of these faiths and are happy to come into school to speak about it, please contact Mr Ross at Stephen.Ross @dulwich-beijing.cn - thank you in advance for your support.

COMING UP

Non-fiction book week

Non-fiction Book Week will take place in the week beginning Monday 27th February. For one lesson each day, students will focus on a different genre of non-fiction. There will also be a 'Drop Everything and Read' event where a bell will be rung and everyone will stop what they are doing for five minutes in order to enjoy some reading. Please do ask your child about what she or he has most enjoyed reading during non-fiction book week!

PARENT WORKSHOPS

Parent Workshops For Term 2

FEBRUARY:

Love & Logic Parenting Programme: Thursday 9th, 16th & 23rd February, 11am-12pm, JS Library. Led by Chris Harmon & Bernadette Enright. We are starting a 6-week course entitled 'Parenting- the Love and Logic Way.' This is aimed at supporting parents of primary-school aged children (aged 4-11) and will continue to enhance the relationship between parent and child in the family home. Please see the attached poster for more information. If you have any questions, queries or would like to participate in this course, please contact Christopher Harmon (JS Head of Additional Educational Needs) directly- Christopher.harmon@dulwich-beijing.cn

The weekend at the start of the break saw DCB and DCS compete in both the boys and girls finals of the ACAMIS Basketball Tournament. Well done to all the students and coaches involved.

Congratulations to Chris Stanley, Camille Brown and the DCB Mathematics Department who won the award for the Teaching Initiative of the Year at the British International School Awards, presented in London. The award was given in recognition of the Blended Maths programme in Years 7 and 8.

All Year 9 and 11 parents and students, please remember the Options Evening which takes place in the Wodehouse Theatre and Main Reception from 4pm on Wednesday 1st March. You would have already received detailed information on this from Mr Stanley.

Good luck to all the organisers and participants involved in the student led DIMUN VII conference, which will be well underway by the time you read this. http://dimun.info/

From the Student Council

It is only the first week back from the CNY Holidays and STUCO has immediately kicked off with not one but two projects. We are planning on hosting a charity event to donate to the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Additionally, we have started working on ideas for the empty space behind the New Dome to provide something extra for all the students. Of course, with the help from the form representatives, we are able to collect ideas from the student body about both projects. Finally, we will be starting to sell tickets for the Formal soon, so as soon as the announcement comes out head to the STUCO TV area and get your ticket! With the two projects and the Formal, Term 2 is going to be an exciting and productive term.

Lily Zhao

Student Council Second Chairperson

Year 10

Myanmar School Project

Over Chinese New Year, with the $1500 raised, Rivka Keshen and I flew to Myanmar to represent The Myanmar School Project on its first successful trip! After flying to Yangon, and spending the night in an airport hotel, we took another flight to Bagan, where we were met with our local contact Ei, who had set up the program. As soon as we arrived, we drove to Pata Pai Teik Monastic Education School and started teaching. We had purchased a lot of school supplies in Beijing but we also used some of the money raised to buy notebooks and sports equipment locally. The sports equipment was probably one of the students' favourite gifts, as throughout the week they started arriving at school earlier and earlier in order to have time to play badminton, football and volleyball, or sit on the swings. We also purchased 16 benches for an Early Years classroom.

Teaching at the school was heartwarming, and so much fun, because of the sheer excitement of the students, and their enthusiasm for learning. One of my fondest memories has to be when the entire school sat down to learn 'If you're happy and you know it'. Even those who could not pronounce the words at all, or didn't get the melody, were belting it out at the top of their lungs. After we left that evening, it turned out they had kept practising the song, and when we came back it was so much better. Reflecting on it all, there is so much work that still needs to be done to support education in Myanmar, but we are so proud to have played a small part in pushing it in the right direction and, if I can tell you one thing, it is that we will definitely be back.

The Myanmar School Project meets every Thursday lunchtime in room 111, and we welcome anyone to join! After such a successful visit, we are hoping to now find a new leadership team who will take over the project next year, as we will be in year 13. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the project; this was a life changing experience!

Elisabeth Henssler

Year 12

Biology Olympiad

On the last day of term before Chinese New Year a group of dedicated Biology students stayed at school to compete in the Royal Society of Biology's Biology Olympiad. The 2 hour paper covered all elements of Biology from Cell Biology to Ecology. All students performed well and we achieved one Commended, one Highly Commended, and two Bronze awards. A very well done to all of the participants!

Participants

Y12: Zoe Kim, YeJi Lim and Melinda Li

Y11: Isabella Meo, Emily Li, Lin Yin Tan, Darren Lu and Ashley Wong.

Dr Hidden

Head of Biology

ACAMIS Basketball – Varsity Boys - Champions

Despite a disappointing performance at the ISAC tournament in Tianjin, expectations remained high as the boys entered the 2017 ACAMIS tournament as back-to-back champions. We arrived at Beijing South with a bit of time to spare—just enough for Alex Pugeat to make the single largest purchase of fried chicken in recorded fried chicken purchasing history. I reminded him that it was only a five hour train journey—he assured me that purchasing literally all of the chicken at KFC was a necessary part of tournament preparation. The chicken transport duties fell to rookie William Fosh, who struggled valiantly to balance a rolling bag beneath the burden of six heaping bags of chicken and sodas. We arrived in Suzhou without issue, and the players went home with their host families, bellies full and ready for to play some basketball.

We drew the host school, SSIS, in the opening game and managed to hold off a late run in the third quarter to grab a 44 – 36 victory, behind a combined 22 points from Peter Parn and Alex Pugeat. In an unfortunate turn of events, Senior Steven Sheng went down with a severely sprained ankle, and would be forced to support the team for the remainder of the tournament on crutches. In the second game, DCB handily defeated the WAB JV team 50 – 13, behind a career high 25 points, including three 3s, from Junior shooting guard Tim Chua. The boys had a lot of momentum going into the last game of the day against Dulwich College Shanghai, coached by former DCB basketball legend Steve Andersen. Our relentless press created numerous turnovers, and cleared the way for our shooters to make it rain in a 47 – 23 defeat of the Panthers.

The second day of play started well, as DCB began by downing the UISG boys 47 – 22 on the back of strong defence and effective shooting from Freshman William Fosh, who came off the bench to drop 7 points, including a 3-pointer. The second game saw us face off against QSIS in a physical match. On the back of 12 points from Sophomore point guard Wayne Chen, including two 3-pointers, DCB controlled the game, winning 35 – 14. This paved the way for us to take the top seed going into a tough semi-final match against SSIS in front of a raucous home crowd. It was a tightly contested game—one in which some critical shots were hit—including a big 3 from Senior shooting guard (and Captain) Harry Zhao, who finished the game with 7 points. But in the end, the win had to be attributed to the big men—Nathan Turner, Brendan Fosh and Alex Pugeat—who dominated the boards, and allowed DCB to sneak away with a 32 – 30 victory.

With the semi-final win, the stage was set for a replay of the 2016 ACAMIS Championship with DCB taking on DCS. As expected, Coach Andersen had made adjustments to counter our press and contain our shooters. Ultimately, it was fierce defence under the leadership of Senior point guard (and Captain) Tiger Ng that restricted scoring opportunities for the Panthers and allowed DCB to maintain control of the game on the way to a 29 – 23 win, and an unprecedented back-to-back-to-back run as ACAMIS Champions. It was truly a team effort, led principally by Head Coach Corey Kong—but executed by the two captains, Tiger and Harry, who brought this team together at the most critical point in the season. Each player contributed and each player was willing to sacrifice for the good of the team.

The DCB Varsity Basketball teams—both boys and girls—embody the values of discipline and commitment. I could not be more proud of what they have accomplished this year.

Mr Tomlin

Head of Basketball

ACAMIS Basketball – Varsity Girls – Second Place

ACAMIS Basketball 2017 was held at the Suzhou Singapore International School. Coming off the back of an almost faultless season and victories in both BYIB and ISAC, our excitement and anticipation over ACAMIS were high. The first day of the tournament saw DCB U19 Girls up against SSIS, WAB and DCS. The morning games solidified DCB's winning intent. Thanks to some fanatical teamwork, defense, and outstanding rebounding both offensively and defensively, the girls were able to effectively limit the other team's scoring opportunities in both games. This paired with excellent application of DCB's strong transition and fast break the girls went to lunch with two strong wins, 75-14 and 46-19 respectively. The afternoon saw DCB and DCS face off for the first time in the tournament. The game remained close throughout, each team pushing the other to shift their plays, tactics and defence. The last quarter started as a tied game, both teams fighting fearlessly for each possession and each point. The match was physical but DCB were patient and slowly chipped away at DCS, finally coming away victorious 34-30.

The second day of competition saw the last of the round robin games against USIG and QSI. Once again solid, all-round performances from the whole squad saw DCB come out on top in both games, 36-14 and 43-16, booking their place in the semi finals as top seeds. After lunch, DCB again played QSI. The opposition struggled to really even get going, looking physically fatigued throughout. DCB ran through their offences with precision and again fought hard to collect rebounds at both ends of the court. Final score: DCB-32 QSI-13. Everything was now in place for the final day of competition with both the boys and girls teams set to play against their Shanghai Counterparts DCS.

With nerves and tension running high after an electrifying DCB boys win, the girls began their own warm up. It was clear from the first whistle that DCS were looking for revenge after their earlier defeat. After a scrappy start, nerves settled and both teams started racking up points. With a long history of competition between the teams, the players know each other well both on and off the court this enables them to disrupt each other's play. Each inbound, every offence, every rebound, each turnover was highly contested and hard fought. Both teams displayed physicality and athleticism from start to finish. DCS started to build a small lead after a few missed opportunities to capitalize on free throws early in the second and third quarters. DCB fought back valiantly to a one point differential with two minutes left on the clock in the final quarter. Unfortunately after an outrageous, long range basket from DCS, DCB entered the final minute of the game 3 points adrift and were unable to catch DCS with the final ending in a heartbreaking loss but a very well deserved second place in the tournament for DCB. The preparation and planning has already begun for next year's competition.

Ms Stevens

Soong House Update

Soong has been busy with House events all year. Recently, we had House Geography, where our House members proved their vexillological (flag science) knowledge.

There was also house music video, which was a huge collaborative effort lead by Annette Yan. The song was "My House", and we showed in it how Soong House is the best House.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in a House event recently! It is thanks to you that we have been able to do so much.

As a whole, our House's talent has really been showing. All we need to do now to win is to take it up a notch. If we can get more and more people to commit to events, we are sure to win the House Cup.

Matthew Chen

Year 12

Team Translation

We have a team of volunteers who help to translate this newsletter into Chinese every week and are always looking to expand this team. Parents who understand the workings of the Senior School and DCB make the best translators and we would love to have you on the team. Please let me know if you would like to support our community through helping with translation. Richard.Hawkins@dulwich-beijing.cn.

Having flown back from a rainy London, I arrived to a snowy Beijing. However, on entering the main reception this morning from the chill outside, I immediately felt warmly welcomed back, not only by the giant rooster of course, but also the staff art exhibition and the Chinese short film festival. I really don’t think I have seen the Atrium looking any more dazzling and vibrant. Well done to everyone involved in this art and film work. We certainly have talented students and staff.

Recruitment went very well and we have more superb new teachers joining us in August. I was even asked to interview on behalf of one of the other Dulwich Colleges, which proves just what a close group of schools we are.

Last night saw a wonderful evening of celebration of the Chinese New Year by the Dulwich staff at the Tang Palace restaurant. It was a very enjoyable experience, even for the College Leadership Team who were forced to show ‘synchronised’ dance moves. I would like to thank all those who contributed to the organisation of this event, in particular our Social and Wellbeing Committee.

The Chinese New Year theme was also reinforced through the excellent Temple Fair this week run by our Chinese Departments, and indeed the Junior School cultural workshops and show on Friday, which were a huge success.

On the subject of pollution proofing, for which I promised updates until completion, the attention to detail has been ongoing and impressive. Having prioritized the areas that were causing the greatest concern, it is clear that the air quality and CO2 levels, in classrooms and public spaces, are achieving excellent levels, better than we had envisaged. Fresh air is being ducted into classrooms and the CO2 is well under our Health and Safety requirements. At present, we are working within a very healthy school environment. We are aware that there is some work still to do, which will be completed during the evenings and at weekends after the Chinese New Year. Work has stopped for the next two weeks as we value the importance of allowing the local workforce to spend time with their families during this important holiday.

To finish on another encouraging note, we have just heard that DCB has been granted The Diplomats’ Award for Best International School in Beijing. Helen and I shall be attending the ceremony on 16th February and I shall give further details after the event. For now, I would like to thank all our teachers, support staff, parents and students for your help in making DCB a truly special place.

Enjoy the holiday with your families, wherever you are planning to be.

With kind regards and gong xi fa cai!

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

NOTIFICATIONS

Please click below for information on our upcoming community events and 2017/18 calendar.

If your child will not be returning to DCB in Term 3 (11th April 2017 to 23rd June 2017), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Tuesday 31st January 2017 in order to qualify for a refund.

New Fencing Classes on Offer

BJZ will provide a special DCP fencing class for students in Year 3 - 6. Classes will be held every Wednesday afternoon, 3.40-4.40 pm starting from 8 February. Only 640 RMB for 8 classes! To register, please contact Jordan at jordan.burns@dulwich-beijing.cn

ISCMS Gala Concert Tickets at Forbidden City on Sale Now!

Date: Saturday, 18 Feb. 2017

Time: 7:00pm

Location: Beijing Forbidden City Concert Hall

Tickets are now officially on sale for the International Schools Music Choral Society (ISCMS) Gala Concert taking place at the spectacular Forbidden City Concert Hall on Saturday 18 February! The tenth anniversary festival, hosted by DCB, will feature three days of intense music making for over 300 students from international schools around Asia, all culminating with a remarkable concert at the renowned venue.

This year, the ISCMS Orchestra will be conducted by Robert Hasty – a celebrated conductor from Chicago. The ISCMS Chorus will be conducted by Richard Gill, one of Australia’s most important choir directors, and the ISCMS Big Band will be led by exuberant, world-renowned trumpeter Mike Vax. Two-time Grammy Award Winning Composer Christopher Tin has written a piece especially for the Festival – and will be working with the Choir and Orchestra in the World Premiere at the Gala Concert.

Get your tickets now before they sell out – this is student music making of a professional standard, and a fantastic programme for all to enjoy!

I write to you from a snowy London, where I have visited Dulwich College London for meetings and will be conducting staff recruitment interviews throughout the weekend. Recruitment has been going very well and I am grateful to the senior leaders, deputies and heads of the three schools in the College for their hard work so far. We are absolutely stringent in selecting only the very best staff for Dulwich College Beijing and I am happy to report that we have filled many vacancies already.

It was a pleasure to welcome your children back to school this week. The boys and girls all certainly seem very well rested and raring to go. I hope that you all enjoyed the Christmas break, wherever you were. I spent time in Beijing and was able to keep in touch with the pollution proofing developments. The results so far have been outstanding. Data is now available for all to see and single digits for PM2.5 are the norm. That is not to say that we are finished. There is ongoing ducting to be completed and further analysis of the new fresh air system, which will ensure excellent PM2.5 and CO2 results. In both PM2.5 and CO2, we have insisted on far more rigorous levels than are standard, because we want the very best possible healthy environment for learning, as I have said before. I would like to thank Mr. Allan for his attention to this, along with Mr. Moss and the Operations team, our contractors, our new Director of Business Administration, Mr. Barton, the small task force team of parents and, of course, DCI for all their support and advice. Everyone has worked well as a community on this and I sincerely think that all this work is now bearing fruit.

Finally, I wonder if you have seen the decorations for Chinese New Year in the main atrium? I cannot let this newsletter pass without reference to these amazing embellishments. They are beautiful and I would like to thank the following people: Head of Senior School Chinese Ms. Grace Gong; Mr. Jacob Dong, and parents Mr. Fujun Li and Ms. Liudmila Singaevskaya for their designs of the huge cockerel (rooster, for our US friends); personal learning assistants Ms. Jeanette Chen and Ms. Jerky Bugtong who designed the model of DCB and the Chinese short film festival strip; bus monitors Ms. Zhao Zhigang and Ms. Gao Xue, who assisted with the cinefilm. What a wonderful example of teamwork - we thank them for their hard work in creating an inspiring and fun environment.

If your child will not be returning to DCB in Term 3 (11th April 2017 to 23rd June 2017), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Tuesday 31st January 2017 in order to qualify for a refund.

Vote for Timeout cover and win a family trip from WildChina!

Do you want to see our school on the cover of Time Out Family? Please click blue link 'Read more' below to vote for Dulwich College Beijing.

You could even win a fantastic family getaway weekend in Yangshuo with award-winning travel company WildChina by doing so! What are you waiting for?

This prize includes

- A two-night stay, including breakfast, for a family of four in the Moondance Boutique Hotel, Yangshuo.

BJZ will provide a special DCP fencing class for students in Year 3 - 6. Classes will be held every Wednesday afternoon, 3.40-4.40 pm starting from 8 February. Only 640 RMB for 8 classes! To register, please contact Jordan at jordan.burns@dulwich-beijing.cn

Chinese New Year Hongbao for Support Staff

As a DCB tradition, our parent organisation, the Friends of Dulwich, organises a distribution of Hongbao (red envelopes) for our support staff each year, to express gratitude to ayis, security guards, maintenance workers, gardeners, bus drivers and bus monitors for their hard work and wonderful service to the school.

Donation boxes have been placed at the Receptions, Student Service Center, Coffee & Books, Senior School Canteen and with the campus administrators of each school. Students, parents, teachers and staff are all welcome to make donations. If you are willing to donate, please enclose cash in an envelope marked with ‘Hongbao’, and drop it in any of the donation boxes by Tuesday, January 17. Early Years and Junior School parents were also given the option of handing in their donations to their class teachers.

Please be aware that this donation will be as an addition to the Hongbao made by DCB to every individual Chinese member of support staff; not only those on contract but also the sub-contracted areas such as ayis, guards, maintenance teams, gardeners, bus monitors and drivers.

Representatives from Friends of Dulwich will pool the cash from the donations and then prepare and distribute a Hongbao to each of our 242 support staff before the Chinese New Year break.

On behalf of Friends, we appreciate your support and generosity in advance!

ISCMS Gala Concert Tickets at Forbidden City on Sale Now!

Date: Saturday, 18 Feb. 2017

Time: 7:00pm

Location: Beijing Forbidden City Concert Hall

Tickets are now officially on sale for the International Schools Music Choral Society (ISCMS) Gala Concert taking place at the spectacular Forbidden City Concert Hall on Saturday 18 February! The tenth anniversary festival, hosted by DCB, will feature three days of intense music making for over 300 students from international schools around Asia, all culminating with a remarkable concert at the renowned venue.

This year, the ISCMS Orchestra will be conducted by Robert Hasty – a celebrated conductor from Chicago. The ISCMS Chorus will be conducted by Richard Gill, one of Australia’s most important choir directors, and the ISCMS Big Band will be led by exuberant, world-renowned trumpeter Mike Vax. Two-time Grammy Award Winning Composer Christopher Tin has written a piece especially for the Festival – and will be working with the Choir and Orchestra in the World Premiere at the Gala Concert.

Get your tickets now before they sell out – this is student music making of a professional standard, and a fantastic programme for all to enjoy!

Here we are in the final week of the term. It seems incredible to look back to the beginning of August, when we welcomed our new staff. What a job they have done and what a welcome they have received from the Dulwich community, as have our new students also. We hope that these newest members of the Dulwich family feel part of something very special.

I would like to thank all the Dulwich teachers and administrative staff for their hard work during this long first term of the year. Teamwork and collaboration, within each school and between the three schools, has been one of the overarching themes for the year and I am delighted to have seen this in practice. There have also been so many presentations and workshops organised for parents and I am grateful to the Early Years, Junior School and Senior School teams for their willingness to engage with such a variety of themes. An understanding of the values, pedagogy and holistic nature of the College leads to stronger links between school and home and I have been impressed that so many of our parents attended these events.

On the subject of events, our Dulwich Christmas always holds a special place in the calendar. This year’s performance by our musicians was superb. The afternoon started with the Christmas bazaar and I would like to thank those parents who took the time to decorate the Atrium and to sell gifts, primarily for charity, from their stalls. As for the concert itself, this was another success for our ever-busy Music department. As Mr. West mentioned, this concert gives our community the chance to come together at the end of a long term and not only listen to music produced by orchestras and choirs from both the Junior and Senior Schools, but also to sing along to some well known carols. We left the Wodehouse Theatre full of Christmas cheer – thank you to all involved.

Our Early Years children were treated to an afternoon of ‘Teddy Bear Gymnastics’ this week. This was risk taking and athleticism at its best. Mrs. Lydall and her team should be commended for this wonderfully prepared activity. This, too, looks like becoming an annual tradition. Even the large, rather sad looking bear below seemed to enjoy it.

In other sporting achievements this week, we are proud to declare that Skia Kung won the U15 Girls FOBISIA Tennis Championship. A super result for Skia who is only in Year 9.

We hope that there will be plenty of blue sky days in Beijing over the Christmas period. Even if this is not the case, you can rest assured that the pollution proofing in the College will continue. Yesterday, Mr Guertler (our CEO), Mr Allan and I met with parents to explain the actions we continue to take to further improve air quality. As well as continuing with the installation of more PureLiving secondary filtration units (completion date 21st December), we have worked with Mr. Jiang Qing to install additional filtered fresh air in the Nursery and Toddler classrooms (completed 4th December). We also continue to develop our data sharing capability, with a screenshot of the average readings from 8 individual monitors for the last 3 days shown below - the black line shows the outside PM2.5 reading in ug/m3 with the inside average shown in blue. We have also received the fresh air system audit report from the China Academy of Building Research and are now working with several vendors to see what work they could complete during the Christmas break to further improve air quality. As a reminder, the sports hall filtration will be upgraded 17th – 22nd December.

Please note that several facility improvements will be taking place at DCB during the Winter holiday. The projects will involve some temporary facility closure. Swimming pool, sports hall and fitness room will be closed from December 17- 22.

The duration of the closures has been minimised to ensure as little disruption as possible to the DCB community. Thank you for your understanding and continuous support.

There are two reasons why I enjoyed ‘An Evening with Chevening’ at the British Embassy on Wednesday this week. Firstly, it was a chance to represent Dulwich and meet some talented scholarship graduates. Secondly, it was an opportunity to listen to the students of our Chamber Orchestra, who were on superb form.

The Chevening Scholarship is the UK government’s international awards scheme aimed at developing global leaders and is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Chinese scholars I met had all spent a year competing a Masters at a top UK university, such as LSE and UCL, and had brought their expertise back to Beijing. Interestingly, they were all very passionate about their time in the UK and were grateful to the Embassy for the opportunity. It struck me as another example of strong UK-China partnerships. It all starts with forging links through personal stories. Dulwich’s own ‘Building Bridges to the World’ came to mind. These graduates are aged 28-35 and wanted to know more about Dulwich. One of them is now working in the media and would like to visit the College and interview students. All of them were extremely impressed by our musicians, and two people asked me if our students were professional musicians!

I was also proud last weekend to hear that four of our students (Edward Schamp, Ian Dong, Tony Chan and Brian Wen) had organised the China Young Entrepreneurs Association competition. Read more about this in Mr. Hawkins’ newsletter. The event deserves recognition and I commend the boys for this endeavour. Student led events and projects have grown significantly at DCB and all three schools are encouraging the students to take on new challenges and responsibilities.

You do not have to look too hard to find inspiration at DCB. On Friday last week, students had the chance to play volleyball alongside one of the greats from China, Olympic gold medalist Feng Kun. She brought with her also played on I'equipe nationelle achinoise Chen Qi. Our Varsity Teams were delighted. Mr. Burns seems to be able to draw in any number of world famous athletes and we look forward to meeting Ronaldo or Messi soon.

Thank you to Dr. Kamal for organising the Key Stage 3 debating competition. I was lucky enough to be one of the judges for the final and was immensely impressed by the standard of debating. What better time to debate the motion, ‘This house believes that Globalism is more important than Nationalism?’ The arguments were delivered eloquently and intelligently. Debating has untold benefits for our students, including the ability to listen to others’ views, to gain confidence in public speaking and to be flexible in our thinking. Congratulations to both teams for an entertaining display.

Finally, we know that the holidays are coming soon when we see the Early Years Winter Celebrations kick into action. Santa was here again, and his accent seemed to have slipped from Aussie to Scouse. He does travel around the world quickly, so our youngest children were not fazed by this! Well done to all our Early Years teachers, children and parents for their joint work to make this a memorable event.

I look forward to seeing many of you next week at the Dulwich Christmas Concert.

We would like to ask parents to email Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn with updated information i.e. home address, mobile/home telephone or email address if these have recently changed.

DCP Football Demonstration Class Cancelled

Due to limited enrolment, the DCP Football demonstration class scheduled for Saturday, 10 December, in the West Dome is cancelled. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by the cancellation and hope to have the coaches come at a later date.

Dulwich Dinner Dance Lucky Draw

Below are the raffle numbers winning some of the prizes from the Dinner Dance. Please bring your raffle tickets to Coffee and Books to collect your prize in the next two weeks.

Saturday November 19 marked one of our biggest events of the year, the long awaited Dulwich Dinner Dance! This superb community event saw the Park Hyatt ballroom transformed into the Minguo period, complete with elegant ladies and gentlemen, refined dancing (well, for most of the evening), a fashion show, a raffle, a kung fu display, and some spectacularly good red wine! The student Big Band and later the staff band provided the musical entertainment. We are hugely grateful to our hardworking parent group, Friends of Dulwich, and to all of our guests who helped to raise money for the Ai You Youth Project, a foundation that provides financial assistance to children effected by congenital heart disease. We are happy to report we were able to raise over 417,052 RMB for this most worthy cause!

It could be said that risk taking and resilience are two of the most highly valued attributes of a Dulwich education. I have the pleasure of watching the College in action every day and am delighted to see that our Early Years, Junior School and Senior School teachers promote these attributes enthusiastically, both inside and outside the classroom. It is the College’s job to encourage the children to take risks within a secure environment and in this way to become more resilient.

In no area is risk taking more evident than on the stage as part of a theatrical performance. Exposed and in the limelight, there is little escape from the gaze of the audience. It was therefore a huge pleasure this week to see the Senior School production and our students delivering their lines with such confidence and obvious enjoyment. The play ‘Teechers’, by John Godber, was performed with humour and emotion, through the dialogue and the physical action. Well done to directors Ms. Harison-Denby and Mr. Randall, and the whole cast. Special mention to Matthew Crooks for keeping his cool, most of the time, as the stressed and downtrodden teacher Mr. Nixon. He fended off the overt attentions of Gail (Alice Hawkins) and Hobby (Alexandra Pillsbury) and dealt with the desperate Salty (Robert Yang) and the scary Oggy Moxon (Rivka Keshen) with great skill. Elisabeth Henssler was quite superb as the scene stealing Mrs. Parry, complete with fat suit – memorable. All the students involved not only took risks; they also managed to laugh at themselves, which is all the more impressive.

Another impressive performance, this time on the sports field, came from the 81 students who headed to Phuket for the Football 7s tournaments. Mr. Hurworth was delighted by the attitude of all the players, who showed team spirit and the best of sportsmanship throughout. This was our largest entry and most successful year at the tournament, with Ms. Sadler’s Varsity Girls winning outright and the U15 Boys gaining silver. The Varsity Boys lost in the semi-final to the eventual winners and the U15 Girls won the Plate Competition. Our younger players had a tougher time but are now aware of the stiff competition and how to prepare. Our thanks go to the parents for their support and the coaches for their dedication.

In other sports news, there was a swim meet last weekend at Dulwich College Suzhou. Coach Gao, Mr. Nichol and Ms. Blundell were very happy to see Ryan Chang gain a Gold Medal and Jeffrey Chang a Bronze, with the overall squad picking up fourth place through their sterling efforts in the pool. On the tennis front, Coach Alan Ma visited Dulwich College on 28November along with his team of professional coaches. Coach Ma works with some of the best tennis players in the world, including Peng Shuai. The evening started with a presentation to parents about the establishment of an elite tennis programme at DCB. Following a productive discussion, Coach Ma and his coaches worked with DCB students during an on-court training session. Coach Ma also brought his daughter, Veronica Li, former captain of the Stanford University tennis team, to talk with DCB students. Veronica helped parents understand the benefit that elite sport can provide for students when applying to top universities in the United States.

The Cambridge International Examination Awards were hosted in the Wodehouse Theatre this week. Our Year 12 student Jenny Huang picked up her Best in the World Award for Foreign Language Chinese. I would like to thank our Marketing and Events team and also Ms. Lina Li from CIE for the organisation of the event.

My final message leads back to the theme of resilience and risk taking. On Wednesday morning, we were privileged to welcome Ms. Susie Rodgers to our Key Stage 3 assembly. Ms. Rodgers epitomizes all that is best in sport. Although missing two limbs from birth, Ms. Rodgers has overcome this handicap to gain Gold in the Rio Paralympics as a swimmer of the butterfly stroke. The students were enthralled by the video footage, by Ms. Rodgers’ anecdotes and life story, and they asked mature and insightful questions. We are certainly lucky at Dulwich to have visits from such inspirational guests.

We would like to ask parents to email Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn with updated information i.e. home address, mobile/home telephone or email address if these have recently changed.

Dulwich Dinner Dance Raises Funds for the Ai You Youth Project!

Saturday November 19 marked one of our biggest events of the year, the long awaited Dulwich Dinner Dance! This superb community event saw the Park Hyatt ballroom transformed into the Minguo period, complete with elegant ladies and gentlemen, refined dancing (well, for most of the evening), a fashion show, a raffle, a kung fu display, and some spectacularly good red wine! The student Big Band and later the staff band provided the musical entertainment. We are hugely grateful to our hardworking parent group, Friends of Dulwich, and to all of our guests who helped to raise money for the Ai You Youth Project, a foundation that provides financial assistance to children effected by congenital heart disease. We are happy to report we were able to raise over 417,052 RMB for this most worthy cause!

Last weekend was extraordinarily busy and fun-filled, even for DCB. There were around five hundred students engaged in a variety of events on Saturday, along with dozens of staff and several visiting schools. It was a veritable smorgasbord of activities (good luck to the translators this week!), and there was something to please everyone.

In Room 308, Mr. Balcombe was rounding off his annual Code Camp, which saw some dedicated ‘coders’ in full collaborative mode. We thank Mr. Balcombe for his energy and support for this popular event each year. Basketball dominated the Sports Hall, the swimming pool was full, and in the West Dome we enjoyed watching the volleyball successes of our U14 boys and girls, who were unbeaten.

However, the main event of the day was surely the first ever International Schools Chinese Debating Competition. This was the original idea of Ms. Gong, our Head of Senior School Chinese. It was superbly planned and executed with help in particular from Ms. Jane Li, all members of our Senior School Chinese Department, and colleagues from BIBA (Beijing International Bilingual Academy). I enjoyed meeting the Principal from BIBA, Dr. Pang, and was honoured to introduce the event and welcome all our guests, who came from eleven schools, including Tsinghua International School, Dulwich College Suzhou, Dulwich College Shanghai, Shanghai Qibao Dwight High School and seven schools from Beijing. There were fifty student volunteers from DCB, thirty teacher judges from seventeen schools and ten parent judges, all helping to make the event run smoothly. The reactions from competitors, parents and visitors were overwhelmingly positive and this is likely to become an annual event, even if not hosted in DCB each year. We are very proud of Ms. Gong and the Chinese Department for their vision, dynamism and determination.

These values were also on display in the evening on Saturday for the long awaited Dulwich Dinner Dance. What a superb community event it turned out to be! Zimo Zeng, Jean Li and the Dinner Dance Committee did not let us down. In fact, the evening exceeded all expectations. The Park Hyatt ballroom was transformed into the Minguo period, complete with elegant ladies and gentlemen, refined dancing (well, for most of the evening), a fashion show, fan dance, the longest raffle in the world, a kung fu display and the auction of some spectacularly good red wine. Mr. West and Ms. Chen Xiao Nan proved to be amusing and engaging compères for the evening and the student Big Band and later the staff band provided the musical entertainment. Our thanks to all involved, to our hugely supportive and hardworking Friends of Dulwich and of course to all the guests who helped to raise money for the worthy Ai You Youth Project.

Music and Drama play such a large part in the life of DCB and we look forward to the school play next week and the Diversity music event. Helen and I were pleased to welcome all the Drama and Music staff to our home last week to thank them for all they do both inside and outside the classroom.

Our Early Years team at the wonderful Riviera Campus, which includes Little Riv, had a four day visit from our colleagues Ms. Kate Beith (Deputy Director of Dulwich Schools) and Ms. Melody Stuckey (Head of DUCKS at Dulwich College Suzhou). The visit served as an audit of our Early Years teaching and learning environment and was a wonderful sharing of best practice. Thank you to our visitors and also our teachers for their hard work and collaborative approach.

In terms of the wider community, Dulwich College International will be hosting its first ever International Old Alleynian (IOA) reunion event in London, UK. It will be held at Dulwich College on Sunday 11 December. Currently there are thirty-three alumni attendees and this number is expected to grow quickly. Dr. Cameron Pyke and Mr. Christopher Parsons will be attending from Dulwich College, possibly accompanied by Dr. Joseph Spence, the Master of Dulwich. Please refer to the poster below if you are interested in attending, catching up with old friends, and making new acquaintances from the Dulwich network.

On Monday snow was forecast but the students felt a little disappointed, with only a small scattering and barely enough to make a snowball. However, the winter theme tonight promises to be far more exciting, with the inaugural ‘Dulwich Christmas Tree Lighting’, singing of carols, an early visit from Santa and perhaps even some artificial snow! I look forward to seeing some of you there.

We would like to ask parents to email Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn with updated information i.e. home address, mobile/home telephone or email address if these have recently changed.

REMINDER: Important Survey from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Education launched a new online data management system(DMS)and all schools registered under the Commission as International Schools for Children of Foreign Personnel are required to have all the necessary information on their staff, students, and parents ready online in DMS. The goal of this new practice is for the Commission to have the complete information andtoclosely monitor the operations in schools in a more efficient and timely manner.

In order to capture all required the most updated information, we would like to ask all parents to fill in the survey below. It will only take you few minutes. As the Commission’s system is in Mandarin, we would like to ask all parents who are able to write in Mandarin to fill in the Chinese version of the survey. The school will translate data for all families who submit their answers in English. Please follow the input example closely.

It was my pleasure this week to welcome Mr. Ivan Levy and Ms. Patricia Mathias to the College. Mr. Levy leads the Dulwich International Schools Foundation and Ms. Mathias represents the Magic Bus charitable organisation. In addition to strengthening the Dulwich links with Magic Bus, which provides educational opportunities to the least fortunate children in India and Myanmar, the visit also gave our students the chance to talk about their own charitable endeavours and to discover how a group-wide focus can benefit a greater number of people. Mr. Levy and Ms. Mathias were amazed by the maturity, sincerity and compassion of the Junior and Senior School student representatives they met. Well done to the students!

On the theme of links, I would like to commend Ms. Guo, one of our new Chinese teachers, and two Year 11 students, Harshita Kumar and Danieck Li, who connected via video with Year 7 and Year 8 students from Dulwich College in London. This formed part of the Dulwich College London ‘Linguistic Week’ and served as a genuine sharing of thoughts in Mandarin. Harshita and Danieck stayed late in the school day in order to participate during the morning assembly in London. Mr. Suddaby, a Mandarin teacher in DCL, was delighted with the collaboration and he thanked our Chinese department, students and Mr. Lavine Zhang, our ICT technician, who made this possible. Mr. Suddaby and the London team also deserve thanks for the idea and we look forward to enjoying further connections with our friends and colleagues in London.

Four of our Year 2 students were very helpful to Mr. Mumford, Mr. Astbury and the Early Years team on Thursday, when they showed prospective parents around Riviera Main Campus. They proved to be excellent ambassadors for the school. The ‘Early Years in Action’ Open Mornings have been a success and we were pleased to see so much interest in the school. Mr. Mumford explained the ethos, values and benefits of a Dulwich education and parents then toured the school and asked questions afterwards. Thank you to all involved, including our teachers of course, who welcomed our guests during a busy working day.

This evening our Year 3 and 4 soloist musicians will perform in an informal concert. It is a wonderful chance for them to gain confidence and to play their pieces in front of an appreciative audience. We wish them all good luck.

Finally, we know that winter is approaching when our College ice rink opens for the first time. This is a moment that many staff and students look forward to. Mr. Burns, Head of DCP, somehow managed to persuade world champion figure skater, Ms. Chen Lu, to come to the College to speak to parents and oversee the first skating session. We hope to see Mr. Burns himself take to the ice soon, along with all the Heads of School, for a winter ice dance extravanganza.

REMINDER: Important Survey from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Education launched a new online data management system(DMS)and all schools registered under the Commission as International Schools for Children of Foreign Personnel are required to have all the necessary information on their staff, students, and parents ready online in DMS. The goal of this new practice is for the Commission to have the complete information andtoclosely monitor the operations in schools in a more efficient and timely manner.

In order to capture all required the most updated information, we would like to ask all parents to fill in the survey below. It will only take you few minutes. As the Commission’s system is in Mandarin, we would like to ask all parents who are able to write in Mandarin to fill in the Chinese version of the survey. The school will translate data for all families who submit their answers in English. Please follow the input example closely.

If you have any questions or encounter any technical difficulties please contact Louise Niu in our Admissions office at Louise.Niu@dulwich-beijing.cn.

This information will NOT be used to update our school records. Also, please ensure that Campus Administrator has thehard copy of your child/ren’s most updated valid passport.

DCB SCHOOL PHOTOS ORDERING

Your children’s individual, class and large format full school photographs can be now ordered online!Each student should have already received an envelope with directions of how to access the KidsPhoto Studio website for ordering school photos. The photos can be viewed online and the large format full school photos are also displayed at our receptions, if you wish to see them prior to order.For e-safety reasons, we have individual login passwords for each student. You can purchase printed versions of individual, class and full school photographs and digital files of individual photos only. The deadline for orders is on Tuesday, November 22nd.

For your convenience, we do recommend parents to view and purchase photos online. The staff from the KidsPhoto Studio will be available at Legend Garden and Riviera Main campus reception areas on November 21st & 22nd between 8:00am – 4:00pm to answer any further questions and collect cash orders, in case you encountered any difficulties with online purchase.

Please note that cash orders can be placed ONLY during these two days and payments have to be received directly by the studio staff, not passed onto teachers or campus administrators. The photos will be delivered to the school before the Christmas holidays (by December 16th).

You will receive this newsletter on the 11th November, which is of course a significant date throughout the UK and the Commonwealth of Nations. First World War hostilities formally ended at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. Remembrance Day was marked in Dulwich by the sale of poppies and by an extraordinary assembly put together by Catherine McCaw, the Senior School Head of History, and a group of Year 12 students. Not only did we remember the brave actions of those involved in the First World War, but also those who have lost their lives in more recent wars throughout the world. The students learnt about the Syrian crisis and the futility of war was exemplified through meaningful photos and video clips. It was a brilliant analysis and reminder of how fortunate we are. Ms. McCaw and her team of helpers deserve our thanks for this presentation which was both sombre and informative.

Money was also directed towards another charitable cause this week. The Dulwich ‘Pink Day’ raised awareness of breast cancer and our students, parents and teachers all played their part, through buying pins, paying to wear pink, running around the sports pitches or buying coffees and cakes from Coffee and Books. Well done all for this community effort.

It has been a while since the last newsletter, owing to the staff professional learning days last week. I would like to thank the teachers and administrative staff for honing their practice, learning new skills and working with others to offer the very best educational experience to all our students. Both Thursday 3 and Friday 4 November proved very useful. I would like to thank in particular Mr. Chris Harmon, Head of Additional Educational Needs (AEN) in the Junior School, and Ms. Christine Ainsworth, Head of AEN in Early Years, for organising a conference on AEN, with a focus on wellbeing. This conference at DCB was attended by delegates from six other countries and included an excellent keynote presenter, Professor Barry Carpenter, CBE. The feedback has been very positive and our own emphasis on the wellbeing of our students has been heightened.

Also last week, I attended two key events to represent Dulwich. The first was the visit by Lord Sassoon to the British Embassy. Lord Sassoon is the new Chair of the China-Britain Business Council, an organisation which seeks to respect and enhance the China-Britain relationship. Secondly, I attended the FOBISIA Heads’ Conference in Bangkok which allowed Heads of British International Schools from across Asia to share challenges and highlights, hold a business meeting and discuss interesting sporting developments.

This week has been as entertaining as ever and our Year 5 children excelled themselves on Thursday evening under the guidance of their class teachers and Head of Year Mrs. Emily Hennessy. Their D’Inspiration performance which highlighted famous people from the worlds of technology, science, humanitarianism, sport and civil rights, was a joy to watch.

During the pollution follow-up meeting convened recently, I promised parents that I would give regular communication on the latest actions. I am now in a position to give deadlines and more detailed information. I would like to reiterate that the only way to obtain clarity is through direct contact with me or Mr. Allan, as opposed to social media channels, which lead to confusion. Since our well-attended Town Hall meeting on 26 October, we have been working extremely hard to further improve air quality at the College. As I mentioned during the Town Hall, there are many areas of the College where air quality is very good. We also know that there are some areas that do not meet our expectations. However, please make no mistake – this is a priority for me and my leadership team. In terms of progress, we are pressing ahead with the installation of the additional filtration units in the restaurant, Junior School dining hall, SSC and main reception area, all of which will be completed by 15 December at the latest.

We are also going to install further units in additional learning spaces, as well as corridors, theatres and libraries. Our assessment of the best way of improving the air in the Sports Hall and Swimming Pool is now complete and work will be undertaken during the Christmas break. We have also just completed our assessment on our air quality monitoring solution, which will ensure data is available from January. Lastly, as our air quality is also dependent on our fresh air system, we are commissioning a specialist to audit our system and make recommendations. All these measures, taken together, will ensure our air quality continues to improve. If you take your own measurements, I would respectfully ask that you share those readings in the first instance with my Operations team, to enable you and the team to compare and discuss the results that we take with our own specialist air quality monitors. The Frequently Asked Questions are now on the parent portal, as promised. Thank you as always for the support and understanding that you continue to show to the College and its students, as we come together as a community to improve air quality.

Finally, a word or two in support of the Dulwich Dinner Dance Committee. We are very much looking forward to this event on 19 November and hope to see many of you there.

REMINDER: Important Survey from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Education launched a new online data management system(DMS)and all schools registered under the Commission as International Schools for Children of Foreign Personnel are required to have all the necessary information on their staff, students, and parents ready online in DMS. The goal of this new practice is for the Commission to have the complete information andtoclosely monitor the operations in schools in a more efficient and timely manner.

In order to capture all required the most updated information, we would like to ask all parents to fill in the survey below. It will only take you few minutes. As the Commission’s system is in Mandarin, we would like to ask all parents who are able to write in Mandarin to fill in the Chinese version of the survey. The school will translate data for all families who submit their answers in English. Please follow the input example closely.

The initial submission deadline has passed, however we are extending it till Monday, November 14th, as we are still waiting for more submissions.

If you have any questions or encounter any technical difficulties please contact Louise Niu in our Admissions office at Louise.Niu@dulwich-beijing.cn.

This information will NOT be used to update our school records. Also, please ensure that Campus Administrator has thehard copy of your child/ren’s most updated valid passport.

DCB SCHOOL PHOTOS ORDERING

Your children’s individual, class and large format full school photographs can be now ordered online!Each student should have already received an envelope with directions of how to access the KidsPhoto Studio website for ordering school photos. The photos can be viewed online and the large format full school photos are also displayed at our receptions, if you wish to see them prior to order.For e-safety reasons, we have individual login passwords for each student. You can purchase printed versions of individual, class and full school photographs and digital files of individual photos only. The deadline for orders is on Tuesday, November 22nd.

For your convenience, we do recommend parents to view and purchase photos online. The staff from the KidsPhoto Studio will be available at Legend Garden and Riviera Main campus reception areas on November 21st & 22nd between 8:00am – 4:00pm to answer any further questions and collect cash orders, in case you encountered any difficulties with online purchase.

Please note that cash orders can be placed ONLY during these two days and payments have to be received directly by the studio staff, not passed onto teachers or campus administrators. The photos will be delivered to the school before the Christmas holidays (by December 16th).

Tickets are all sold out for the Dinner Dance this year. However, parents can still be involved as a donor. As a fundraising event, the Dulwich Dinner Dance is a wonderful opportunity for the entire Dulwich Community to get together, with all profits donated to Ai You Young Heart Project, which provides financial aid to children suffering from Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).

The Friends’ Organising Committee for the Dinner Dance has sourced art works from Early Years and Junior School students and put together an art exhibition. The art pieces are on display at the Main Reception areas of Legend Garden and Riviera Main Campus. Parents may bid for the pieces if they wish to be a donor to the Ai You Young Heart Project. Bids start from RMB200 in the Silent Auction. Please contact Ms Wu Lan at lunasinluz@gmail.com or scan the QR code below if you would like to bid for any of the artworks.

I would like to thank all the Friends of Dulwich who helped with the Roundabout Book Fair at DCB. RMB 57,182 was raised through the sale of books, the mobile coffee stall and the student performances over the three days. What a wonderful piece of teamwork.

Some parents also gave their time on Wednesday evening to attend the presentation and question-answer session on air quality. I am grateful to the parents who shared their views with such clarity and conviction. As both Headmaster and a parent myself, I can assure all parents and students that I shall continue to focus on this issue until all is resolved. I am well supported by our Director of Business Administration, Mr. Ross Allan, along with the Dulwich College International Chairman, Mr. Fraser White, and CEO, Mr. Christian Guertler. We shall communicate all actions. The large public areas will be tackled forthwith, starting with the Atrium (Main Reception). A list of Frequently Asked Questions will appear on the parent portal next week. Another smaller meeting is scheduled for some follow-up points, and this group, which includes our parental Health and Safety Committee representative Catherine Ho, will feedback through the usual routes. I shall keep you informed.

Last week we were congratulating Junior School sports teams and this week it is the turn of their Senior School peers. Well done to the DCB Girls 2nd Tennis Team, Annika Menon and Mika Yokota, who won the ACAMIS title with an impressively consistent display – and all this when they are only Year 8 age in an U19 tournament! Please read the review of this, and our boys’ second place, in Mr. Hawkins’ Senior School newsletter. You will also find more details of the ISAC football tournaments, in which DCB won three trophies out of six, with the Girls U13 and U14 teams, as well as the Boys U14 team, bringing home gold medals. As Mr. Lydall says, ‘The results are a testament to the hard work put in since the start of the academic year by the players and coaches, all expertly guided by our new Head of Football, Mr. Hurworth.’

Another message from Mr. Lydall this week brings good news on sports communication for parents and students. Please read the below:

SOCS Sport is here!

“We are delighted to announce the launch of the DCB SOCS Sport site. SOCS Sport is a dedicated web-based platform that I hope will develop quickly into the focal point for sports communication between parents, students and staff.

SOCS is used by the majority of top UK independent schools and is generally considered to be the market leader in school sport communication. The key features of the DCB SOCS Sport site are the sports calendar, live fixtures and results as well as a variety of other team information. I hope that the introduction of SOCS Sport will have a significant impact on the quality of sport related communication that we are able to provide at DCB.

Please access SOCS Sport through the school website: learning, sports, fixtures and results.”

Teamwork seems to be a theme in this week’s newsletter (appropriately enough when our current Dulwich Value is Collaboration), and no more so than in the visit by the extraordinary Red Arrows, the famous British aeronautical display team. They represent the best of teamwork, trust and communication, flying in formation at supersonic speeds whilst performing in front of thousands of people each year. I remember them as a child and no official large public celebration would be complete without a fly past by the Red Arrows. I had the pleasure of showing Group Captain Finn Moynihan around the College. I was a little worried when we lost the other Arrows at one point but fortunately they managed to find each other, as usual, this time near the dining hall.

This week I had the chance to attend the DCB Young Musician of the Year competition for Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4/5 students. The quality was as high as ever and I commend all the performers. Likewise, our Early Years mothers, and one father, deserve commendation for their sparkling performances in the Spider and Pumpkin Halloween Show for their children. Well done all!

And finally, another piece of good news. It is with pleasure that I can reveal that DCB has been shortlisted for a British International School Award for Teaching Initiative. Mr. Stanley began the Blended Maths project with his team and now Ms. Brown is developing this further. We are through to the last four schools from around the world. The prize ceremony takes place in London in January 2017.

Meet the Senior School leadership team including Head of Senior School, Mr Richard Hawkins at DCB’s first Senior School Open House this academic year. Topics that will be covered include ‘The DCB Senior School Curriculum’, ‘Transitioning from Junior to Senior School’, ‘How to Raise a Resilient and Successful Teenager’ and ‘DCB’s Approach to University Counselling'. A campus tour and Q&A session will follow the programme.

Learn more about DCB's approach to teaching and learning in the Early Years at our Open House event on 17 November. David Mumford, the Head of Early Years, will be doing a presentation on ‘Early Years at DCB – a UK curriculum designed for the hands, hearts and minds of international young learners’.

The Dulwich Dinner Dance is one of key social and fundraising events for the DCB community. This year’s theme is "Minguo"民国 and it will be held at Park Hyatt Beijing on 19 November 2016. Minguo was an era of great change and brilliant new ideas where some of China’s greatest minds emerged. It was also a stylish, modern and romantic era.

As a fundraising event, the Dulwich Dinner Dance is a wonderful opportunity for the entire Dulwich Community to get together, with all profits donated to Ai You Young Heart Project, which provides financial aid to children suffering from Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).

An individual ticket costs RMB1,180. The price is reduced to RMB1,080 per ticket for a table of 12. Tickets will go on sale from 19 October onwards. Please contact Ms Wu Lan at lunasinluz@gmail.com if you would like to reserve a seat.

The Dinner Dance Committee is currently seeking donations from individuals or organisations. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of this wonderful charity event, please contact our sponsorship coordinators Selina Han at pinkhan@foxmail.com or Erika Ji at 1150888948@qq.com for more details.

Last weekend was a busy one for many teachers and students. The Boys Varsity Volleyball Team won ISAC over at BSB, beating ISB in the semi-final and BSB in the final. The spirit and sportsmanship were excellent throughout and we congratulate the boys and their coach, Mr. Newman. In the meantime, back at DCB our Chinese teachers were attending some excellent professional development. Grace Gong, Head of Senior School Chinese, managed to persuade Ms. Shelly Zhou, famous actress and current Professor of Drama at Peking University, to train our teachers and 50 others from 14 international schools around Beijing. The teachers learned of the important educational links between drama and language teaching and learning. This will have an immediate impact in the classroom and we appreciate Ms. Zhou’s visit.

We were delighted to welcome the International School of Amsterdam to DCB on Thursday. The Year 9 students from this school in Holland all study Mandarin and were here to meet our students and work with our Chinese Department. I am keen to see DCB students make connections with their counterparts around the world, thereby developing a broad mind, international outlook and respect for others. It was interesting that the initiation of the link came from one of the Mandarin teachers in Amsterdam, who was advised by a Beijing parent to contact Dulwich first. We hope our guests had a lovely day.

In our Early Years, the highlight this week was the ‘Early Years in Action’ morning. This allowed prospective parents a chance to view the wonderful learning environment at Riviera Main Campus. David Mumford, John Astbury, Nicola Fennemore and the whole Riviera team did a superb job and I even have four Headmaster’s Commendations to award to Year 2 children who gave tours to the visitors! David Mumford gave a presentation and then the visiting families had a chance to chat with teachers and leaders. Of the 29 families who attended, 1 would like to sign up immediately, 5 would like to join in Jan 2017, 13 in Autumn 2017 and 5 in 2018. This reflects the strength of Riviera and its teachers, and we are grateful also to our marketing and events team for their organisation and support.

It has been an amazing week for football in the Junior School!

At the Suzhou tournament last weekend both Boys A and B teams won the plate competitions and the girls played well to come 4th overall in their competition. This week all year groups have sent teams to BSB for invitational tournaments. On Tuesday the U11 boys and girls both won 2nd place (coaches, Jack Alford, Sara Hunter). On Thursday the U9 Girls team won 1st place (coach, Redemta Ndirangu) and today we have just heard the news that our U8 Boys and Girls (coaches Joshua Howarth and Stephen Hurworth) both gained 1st place - well done all for the huge effort and teamwork!

In last week’s newsletter letter I mentioned that there would soon be a presentation and question-answer session on pollution. The plan is to share with parents exactly what DCB is doing to provide the healthiest environment possible for our students and your children. This is an important matter for all of us and I am pleased to say that this will take place next week, on Wednesday 26th October at 6pm in the Wodehouse Theatre. Please see the ‘Upcoming Events’ section of this newsletter for full details. I look forward to seeing as many of you here as possible.

Thank you to the very many parents who drive carefully and considerately. Unfortunately, a small number of parents/drivers are dropping off their child at Gate 7 and causing traffic jams. Please view the important drop-off messages this week in the individual school newsletters. Reminder: the bridge to the College is the access point to DCB, not Gate 7. If your child cannot walk through injury, please contact your Head of School. Our students will be reminded of this by their Head of School.

Our visit from the pilot Tracey Curtis-Taylor, who delivered the Shackleton Lecture, was a great success. We all thoroughly enjoyed hearing of her inspiration to fly solo from UK to Australia in a small biplane and how all her journeys have helped her build resilience along with a sense of adventure. We are most grateful to Ms. Curtis-Taylor for spending time with us.

Finally, there will be a ‘fun run’ soon in collaboration with two other international schools in Beijing (ISB and BSB). Please see the Upcoming Events if you would like to join in with this collaborative chance to exercise!

At Dulwich College Beijing, the health and well-being of our students is a top priority. For that reason, DCB takes Beijing’s unique environmental factors, including pollution, extremely seriously. To fully address this sensitive issue, DCB cordially invites our parent community to attend an informative discussion on how DCB addresses air quality at school.

The talk will feature two key presenters: Headmaster Simon Herbert, and Louie Cheng, President of PureLiving China, China’s leading indoor environmental health and safety consulting firm. Topics will include how we tackle pollution at Dulwich, the vast improvements made to classrooms and facilities over the summer holiday, as well as our plans for further improvement going forward.

Please note that this event is open to DCB parents only. A Q&A session consisting of five panelists – Simon, Louie, DCB’s Director of Business Administration Ross Allan, DCI’s Director of Operations Shane Frecklington and Steven Hu, DCI’s Associate Director of Operations, will follow the talk.

Refreshments will be provided at the event. Please RSVP via Yoopay here - https://yoopay.cn/event/TownhallOnAQI For more information, please contact Flora Zhang at Flora.Zhang@dulwich-beijing.cn

Dulwich Dinner Dance - SAVE THE DATE!

Date: Saturday, 19 November 2016

Time: 6:00PM till late

Location: Park Hyatt Beijing

The Dulwich Dinner Dance is one of key social and fundraising events for the DCB community. This year’s theme is "Minguo"民国 and it will be held at Park Hyatt Beijing on 19 November 2016. Minguo was an era of great change and brilliant new ideas where some of China’s greatest minds emerged. It was also a stylish, modern and romantic era.

As a fundraising event, the Dulwich Dinner Dance is a wonderful opportunity for the entire Dulwich Community to get together, with all profits donated to Ai You Young Heart Project, which provides financial aid to children suffering from Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).

An individual ticket costs RMB1,180. The price is reduced to RMB1,080 per ticket for a table of 12. Tickets will go on sale from 19 October onwards. Please contact Ms Wu Lan at lunasinluz@gmail.com if you would like to reserve a seat.

The Dinner Dance Committee is currently seeking donations from individuals or organisations. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of this wonderful charity event, please contact our sponsorship coordinators Selina Han at pinkhan@foxmail.com or Erika Ji at 1150888948@qq.com for more details.

It was a pleasure to see the students back in their schools so happy and refreshed after the holiday. I hope you managed to enjoy some special family time, wherever you were.

We stayed in Beijing and, despite some adverse weather, enjoyed a restful week. I would like to thank Mr. Hurworth and Mr. Burns for organising a superb football camp during the holiday.

Mr. Hurworth is actually away in Suzhou now with many Year 3 and 4 children at a Dulwich football tournament until Sunday, so he really will need another holiday soon!

Also during the week, the Herbert family enjoyed a visit or two to the China Open Tennis, to see some great matches and to support the Roundabout Charity. Mrs. Mary Kate Brown does an amazing job for Roundabout and even managed to negotiate the installation of a Roundabout book stall within the tournament grounds.

We were proud that two of our students were heavily involved as volunteers at the China Open tournament, having been selected from a huge number of applicants. Both Elizabeth and Victoria Ji were responsible for assisting the ball boys, ball girls and supervisors in their work. The girls showed an excellent attitude and have clearly picked up on service to others. This is an excerpt from an article sent by Elizabeth (Year 11):

‘We brought bottled water to the supervisors. These supervisors have an evaluation grid they have to complete in order to select the best ballkids to stay until the finals. We also had to take these evaluation grids back to the main office and transfer all comments that were written down on the paper onto a shared link, where they store all the scores for each ballkid. We were also able to plan a ballkids’ competition. My sister and I thought of 5 fun unique games that you can play without changing much from the basic tennis rules. Throughout this activity we were able to make friends from France and Australia. We really like to help people no matter what kind of work we have to do. Overall, we believe that it was a great experience volunteering for the China Open.’

This week I have enjoyed a ‘Meet the Headmaster’ gathering, a lunch organised by Mrs. Pankratz with university admissions officers from Rice, Vanderbilt, Cornell and Chicago, and a lunch with our Korean parental representatives. I would like to thank our Korean representatives for all they do to communicate school news and our ethos to the Korean community.

I have realised that the life of a Headmaster is never dull. I glanced at my diary on Monday and saw that I had a chess match to play, against a Chinese grandmaster who has been national champion six times! Mr. Ye Jiang Chuan has even played against Kasparov, Karpov and Short. Mr. Burns, our Head of DCP, persuaded this grandmaster to visit and play against ten Junior School children at the same time and then against me, which I am sure was not the highlight of his career. I tried not to let DCB down too badly and to keep the game going as long as possible, before finally having to resign my king.

I would like to highlight an opportunity for parents to attend an inspiring talk from a risk-taking adventurer! Each year, all the Dulwich International Schools invite one special speaker to give what is known as the Shackleton Lecture. The Shackleton Lecture series commemorates Old Alleynian and renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton. The series features leading explorers speaking to students about grit, determination and courage to help them uncover a sense of adventure in everyday life. This year’s Shackleton Lecture is hosted by Tracey Curtis-Taylor, a British aviator renowned for her long distance flights in vintage open cockpit aircraft. In 2015 – 2016, Tracey completed the 23,000km journey from Farnborough, England to Sydney, Australia in a 1942 Boeing Stearman, in honour of Amy Johnson’s flight from Britain to Australia. We have opened this opportunity to parents also. The lecture will take place on Monday 17th October from 2.30pm – 3.30pm in Room 308 at Legend Garden. You may book your seat on yoopay or ask See Kay Leong for further details (seekay.leong@dulwich-beijing.cn).

Earlier in this letter I mentioned the weather. There will soon be a presentation and question-answer session on pollution. Work has been carried out during the summer, particularly in classrooms (with 54 extra ceiling mounted filters). Work in larger areas is to take place soon. As the Headmaster and also a parent myself, this is a priority, and the health of our students will always be top of my agenda. I would like to ask you two things. First, please keep a look out for the date of the pollution presentation, which will be led by representatives from Pure Living, the school leadership (Mr Allan, who is our Bursar, and myself) and the DCI Operations Department. Second, please do not bring your own personal ‘laser eggs’ to school in order to walk around taking readings in our corridors and classrooms. This is unhelpful to our students and teachers, no matter how well intentioned. Instead of this, please attend the presentation and question-answer session and hear of the progress being made and the challenges ahead. Of course, you can also see me at any point after this – just book a meeting through Ms. Zhou.

In terms of the car park, the new permit system will begin on Monday 17th October. Thank you to all the many parents who have applied for this. We are committed to stop any dangerous or selfish driving in the car park and are delighted that so many of you have supported this aim. Point to note: the permit needs to be displayed at drop off and pick-up (i.e. when actually driving in the car park). It does not need to be left on your dashboard after you have parked and come into the school for any reason.

Finally, I would like to finish this week’s newsletter with an amazing piece of academic news about two Year 12 students. Jenny Hwang achieved ‘Best in the World’ for her result in IGCSE Foreign Language Mandarin and Brooklyn Han (whose family moved to the UK during the summer) obtained the award ‘Best in China’ for his IGCSE in Music. We are extremely proud of these two students and their teachers. This impressive feat will be celebrated at a ceremony in Beijing on 30th November, organised by the Cambridge International Examination Board. Here is Jenny after receiving the news.

If your child will not be returning in Term 2 (9th Jan 2017 to 31st Mar 2017), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Saturday 15th Oct 2016 in order to qualify for a refund.

Updated Contact Details

We would like to ask parents to email Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn with updated information i.e. home address, mobile/home telephone or email address if these have recently changed.

Summer Photo Competition Winners on Display Next Week!

As the temperatures continue to cool down and warm weather feels like just a memory, head to the Main Lobby of the Legend Garden Campus next week and reminisce about ‘Summer Fun’, the theme of this year’s Summer Photo Competition! The winners of the annual competition, which is open to all students, parents, and staff of DCB, will be on full display! Don’t miss seeing amazing memories from the DCB community enjoying the best season of the year to its fullest.

Our judge for the competition, Jack Xu said he looked at the story each photo was telling as well as the skills of the photographer to determine the winners. Jack has been a photographer for 10 years and his CV includes events for the American embassy, including a shoot of US President Obama!

Category: Students

1st PlaceFlemming Li, Year 13 — Boston Downtown, Massachusettes

2nd PlaceSusha/Xenia Edwards, Year 8 — Nantucket Island

3rd Place

Kaleo Zhu, Year 8 — Seaside, OR, USA

Category: Parents

1st Place

Nick Low — The Beach in Guam

2nd PlaceHeuijong Lee — Moliets, France

3rd Place

Huo Xin — Deschutes River in Central Oregon

Category: Staff

1st Place

Mark Pankratz — Venice, Italy

2nd PlaceKasia Baran — Zoo in Poland

3rd Place

Michael Zhang — Kyoto, Japan

Friends of Dulwich Enrichment Fund – APPLY NOW!

The Friends of Dulwich is pleased to invite applications for the Enrichment Fund for academic year 2016/17.

The fund available is RMB120,000 – 20% more than last year.

Please login to the Friends Page on the Parent Portal for the Guidelines and Application Form.

Apply now - applications close on Friday, 11 November 2016.

Seeking Volunteers for the Roundabout Book Fair @ DCB

DCB will be hosting the Roundabout Book Fair on 22, 24 & 25 October 2016.

Learn more about Early Years at our very first open house event of the year!

David Mumford, the Head of Early Years, will be doing a presentation on ‘Early Years at DCB – a UK curriculum designed for the hands, hearts and minds of international young learners’.

Campus tour and Q&A session will be held after the presentation.

The open house is open to prospective parents only, but we would be grateful if current DCB parents can help to spread the news to your family and friends.

Dulwich Dinner Dance - SAVE THE DATE!

Date: Saturday, 19 November 2016

Time: 6:00PM till late

Location: Park Hyatt Beijing

The Dulwich Dinner Dance is one of key social and fundraising events for the DCB community. This year’s theme is "Minguo"民国 and it will be held at Park Hyatt Beijing on 19 November 2016. Minguo was an era of great change and brilliant new ideas where some of China’s greatest minds emerged. It was also a stylish, modern and romantic era.

As a fundraising event, the Dulwich Dinner Dance is a wonderful opportunity for the entire Dulwich Community to get together, with all profits donated to Ai You Young Heart Project, which provides financial aid to children suffering from Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).

An individual ticket costs RMB1,180. The price is reduced to RMB1,080 per ticket for a table of 12. Tickets will go on sale from 19 October onwards. Please contact Ms Wu Lan at lunasinluz@gmail.com if you would like to reserve a seat.

The Dinner Dance Committee is currently seeking donations from individuals or organisations. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of this wonderful charity event, please contact our sponsorship coordinators Selina Han at pinkhan@foxmail.com or Erika Ji at 1150888948@qq.com for more details.

An astonishingly busy week for students, teachers and parents of DCB. Just a glance through the Early Years, Junior School and Senior School newsletters will give you an idea of just how much has been going on in the schools. It has been a pleasure to see such energy and passion.

Our Legend Garden Early Years teachers met with Ms. Kate Beith (DCI Deputy Director of Schools) this week as part of an environmental audit. I would like to thank all our Early Years teachers for their willingness to share best practice and for their hard work in making their school so special. Riviera staff will have their turn later in the term.

Mr. John Todd (Regional Director of China Schools) was also with us and told me how much he had enjoyed meeting our students. In fact he went further, saying that the atmosphere in the College really was quite special, with students of all ages speaking to adults confidently and engagingly. He was truly impressed and I think our students deserve to be commended for this, as do the teachers, for developing such a rapport.

On the subject of commendations, I was delighted today to be able to present a Headmaster’s Commendation to one of our youngest students. Daniel He, a toddler in Ms. Van Ginkel’s class, took it upon himself to show kindness to a classmate, helping Yuna to put on her socks, shoes and bracelet! She seems to be enjoying the attention. The photos speak for themselves.

Kindness and Collaboration (two of our Dulwich Values) have also been seen in abundance in our Junior and Senior Schools this week. Both Junior and Senior Schools held superb Sports Days, for which we thank Mr. and Mrs. Lydall, Mr. Durbin and all the PE staff. The Year 6 students performed brilliantly in their dramatic musical ‘Disaster Strikes’, which illustrated some of the ways we can help others involved in natural disasters. Utopian and dystopian themes were also covered in the most entertaining and informative way in the Senior School too, through an English Department Utopia Day and through the screening of the excellent, award winning film, ‘The Remnant’, of which I have written in previous newsletters. The director of the film, Karmia Olutade, spoke highly of all the students involved and their sincere dedication to environmental issues. We are all so proud of the actors.

This week has included a number of firsts for me. I enjoyed my first Board of Trustees meeting and would like to thank the parental representatives who put in so much work in support of the College. The conversations were fruitful and we were fortunate to be joined by Mr. Christian Guertler (CEO of Dulwich College International), Dr. Cameron Pyke (Deputy Head External from Dulwich College London), Mr. Brian McDouall (Director of Schools for Dulwich International), and Mr. John Todd (Regional Director of Schools). Helen and I also enjoyed an evening with the Headmasters (Principals) and their spouses from other international schools in Beijing. It is important to discuss highlights and concerns together as a group, for invariably we share similar issues as like-minded colleagues. I am pleased to say that many favourable comments were directed towards DCB, its teaching staff and students.

Our parents have been really active this week, in dinner-dance discussions, charity and year group committees, safeguarding and university presentations, and all manner of workshops. This is impressive and indicates the high levels of parental engagement throughout the College. In turn, I would like to support our parents by giving the following message. The Friends are now launching applications for the Enrichment Fund 2016-17. The guidelines and application form can be found on the Friends’ Section of the Parent Portal.

Finally, it is time for Golden Week. Well done in particular to all our new teachers for not only surviving but thriving in the first half of term.

May I wish you all a very good holiday, whether you are remaining in Beijing or travelling further afield.

If your child will not be returning in Term 2 (9th Jan 2017 to 31st Mar 2017), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Saturday 15th Oct 2016 in order to qualify for a refund.

Updated Contact Details

We would like to ask parents to email Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn with updated information i.e. home address, mobile/home telephone or email address if these have recently changed.

Friends of Dulwich Enrichment Fund – APPLY NOW!

The Friends of Dulwich is pleased to invite applications for the Enrichment Fund for academic year 2016/17.

The fund available is RMB120,000 – 20% more than last year.

Please login to the Friends Page on the Parent Portal for the Guidelines and Application Form.

Apply now - applications close on Friday, 11 November 2016.

The British Motorsport Festival (BMF)

A one- of –a –kind motorsport event for all the family taking place tomorrow!

Learn more about Early Years at our very first open house event of the year!

David Mumford, the Head of Early Years, will be doing a presentation on ‘Early Years at DCB – a UK curriculum designed for the hands, hearts and minds of international young learners’.

Campus tour and Q&A session will be held after the presentation.

The open house is open to prospective parents only, but we would be grateful if current DCB parents can help to spread the news to your family and friends.

Dulwich Dinner Dance - SAVE THE DATE!

Date: Saturday, 19 November 2016

Time: 6:00PM till late

Location: Park Hyatt Beijing

The Dulwich Dinner Dance is one of key social and fundraising events for the DCB community. This year’s theme is "Minguo"民国 and it will be held at Park Hyatt Beijing on 19 November 2016. Minguo was an era of great change and brilliant new ideas where some of China’s greatest minds emerged. It was also a stylish, modern and romantic era.

As a fundraising event, the Dulwich Dinner Dance is a wonderful opportunity for the entire Dulwich Community to get together, with all profits donated to Ai You Young Heart Project, which provides financial aid to children suffering from Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).

An individual ticket costs RMB1,180. The price is reduced to RMB1,080 per ticket for a table of 12. Tickets will go on sale from 19 October onwards. Please contact Ms Wu Lan at lunasinluz@gmail.com if you would like to reserve a seat.

The Dinner Dance Committee is currently seeking donations from individuals or organisations. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of this wonderful charity event, please contact our sponsorship coordinators Selina Han at pinkhan@foxmail.com or Erika Ji at 1150888948@qq.com for more details.

I write this from a sunny Shanghai where I joined all the other Dulwich College Headmasters this week for Steering Group. It has been wonderful spending time with these colleagues and sharing news and views. They have been most welcoming and it has been an exciting few days discussing our vision for the Dulwich Colleges in the group. I presented on a couple of exciting collaborations that DCB is currently investigating, and will share these with you when they come to fruition. I look forward to returning to Beijing on Sunday and to the buzz of DCB on Monday. I shall endeavour to keep my absences to a minimum, although inevitably there will be times ahead when I shall need to be away. I would like to reassure parents that during these absences, our excellent Heads of School will remain in constant contact with me. I also welcome any communication from parents and shall continue to reply as soon as possible.

Next week we welcome Kate Beith (Deputy Director of Dulwich International Schools, with specific focus on Early Years) and Melody Stuckey (Head of DUCKS at Dulwich College Suzhou) who will be busy leading an auditing team which includes David Mumford, our Head of Early Years. Our campus at RMC will be audited at a later date. We also welcome John Todd (Dulwich Director of China Schools) who will be visiting our College for two days, and we welcome his input and collaboration with our staff.

This week our Staff Social and Wellbeing Committee launched their annual events calendar with an invitation to staff and their families to come together for a social evening. I thank all members of this committee for the time and effort dedicated to the wellbeing of our staff. A healthy and enjoyable work environment is crucial in itself and of course to the success of the College. Our staff have recently been commended for their energy and determination by the organisers of the Global Corporate Challenge. I would like to particularly mention our new teachers, who joined us this academic year. They have settled very well and their dedication and enthusiasm have been a pleasure to see.

Collaboration was in evidence this week between Early Years and Senior School, with the arrival in the EY classrooms of our Year 12 CAS students. May I thank our Early Years teachers for welcoming these students and encouraging their creativity. My own son Will worked with Year 2s and described the experience as, ‘Great fun and exhausting, with such amazing children!’

In our Junior School this week, all year groups enjoyed the World’s Largest Lesson, aiming to gain a better understanding of some of the Sustainable Development Goals. Year 3 focused on poverty, Year 4 on ecosystems, Year 5 on water contamination and Year 6 on natural disasters and disease. Well done to all for examining these themes so thoroughly.

Last week I mentioned car parking. Please note that from Monday, October 17th, only cars with permits behind their windscreen will be allowed into the car park. The permits will display the parent’s name and child/ren's class/form group. These permits are not permanently stuck on the windscreen of cars but must be displayed when entering the car park and during drop-off and pick-up times.

In other news, we are also pleased to announce that the Dulwich College International group is planning to open a sister school in Beijing. This is projected to open in 2019 and will be a K to 12 Chinese international school for students who are PRC nationals. It will be based in Grasse Town, offering a curriculum that will blend the Chinese compulsory curriculum with the very best of a Dulwich College international education. A letter of intent has now been signed with the Luneng Group and the hard work now begins to bring the project into reality. The next step will be to seek the support and approval of the relevant licensing authorities.

Dulwich College Beijing, which will remain the international flagship school in Beijing, is excited about the opportunities which will arise for our students from having a sister school so close at hand. Dulwich College Beijing will continue to offer the highest academic standards, rich culture, performance and sporting provisions that are integral to the holistic Dulwich College ethos. We are still in very early stages of development, but as soon as details about this exciting project become available we will be sure to let you know. If you would like to receive further information about the Chinese international school, please register your email with our Head of Admissions, Marketing and Communications, Ms. Kasia Baran, on kasia.baran@dulwich-beijing.cn

Finally, the wedding celebrations of Mr. Jordan Burns, Head of our Dulwich Community Programmes, and his wife Li Chao took place last weekend at Pinotage Restaurant. It was a beautiful occasion and enjoyed by all, including staff children and of course the happy couple themselves. We wish Jordan and Li Chao all happiness.

If your child will not be returning in Term 2 (9th Jan 2017 to 31st Mar 2017), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Saturday 15th Oct 2016 in order to qualify for a refund.

Updated Contact Details

We would like to ask parents to email Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn with updated information i.e. home address, mobile/home telephone or email address if these have recently changed.

Seeking Volunteers for the Roundabout Book Fair @ DCB

DCB will be hosting the Roundabout Book Fair on 22, 24 & 25 October 2016.

DCB is looking for our new Early Years Librarian! If you know anyone who would be interested in this local hire position, please forward them the advert below.

Do you a have wide knowledge of children’s literature and love working with children? Do you have teaching skills and a keen interest in working with students of varying reading levels? Then consider applying to join DCB’s stellar Early Years team as an Early Years Librarian! While encouraging reading and teaching basic information skills is instrumental to this role, the successful candidate will be able to organise, catalogue, and classify library resources as well as select, maintain, and acquire appropriate resources for the Early Years Library. This position will assist the Head Librarian in special programming to include author visits, Panda Book promotion, Beijing Literary Festival, and other related events.

Learn more about Early Years at our very first open house event of the year!

David Mumford, the Head of Early Years, will be doing a presentation on ‘Early Years at DCB – a UK curriculum designed for the hands, hearts and minds of international young learners’.

Campus tour and Q&A session will be held after the presentation.

The open house is open to prospective parents only, but we would be grateful if current DCB parents can help to spread the news to your family and friends.

Dulwich Dinner Dance - SAVE THE DATE!

Date: Saturday, 19 November 2016

Time: 6:00PM till late

Location: Park Hyatt Beijing

The Dulwich Dinner Dance is one of key social and fundraising events for the DCB community. This year’s theme is "Minguo"民国 and it will be held at Park Hyatt Beijing on 19 November 2016. Minguo was an era of great change and brilliant new ideas where some of China’s greatest minds emerged. It was also a stylish, modern and romantic era.

As a fundraising event, the Dulwich Dinner Dance is a wonderful opportunity for the entire Dulwich Community to get together, with all profits donated to Ai You Young Heart Project, which provides financial aid to children suffering from Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).

An individual ticket costs RMB1,180. The price is reduced to RMB1,080 per ticket for a table of 12. Tickets will go on sale from 19 October onwards. Please contact Ms Wu Lan at lunasinluz@gmail.com if you would like to reserve a seat.

The Dinner Dance Committee is currently seeking donations from individuals or organisations. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of this wonderful charity event, please contact our sponsorship coordinators Selina Han at pinkhan@foxmail.com or Erika Ji at 1150888948@qq.com for more details.

I hope you enjoyed the Moon Festival. I spent much of the day interviewing potential Bursars (Directors of Business Administration). I shall let you know the outcome of this as soon as possible. We have been most impressed by the final candidates shortlisted.

The most important piece of news for the College this week is the result of the China Expert International and Expat Life Awards. In last week’s newsletter, I mentioned that Helen and I would be attending the ceremony and had fingers crossed. In the end, it was even better than we could have expected, as DCB took home the first prize and top award for Best International School! This was voted for by over 4,500 expatriates online. This is a credit to our teachers, administrative staff and students and is a reflection of all the hard work, creativity and energy that we see every day at DCB. Well done, all!

On Saturday last week, the AustCham (Australian Chamber of Commerce) BBQ took place on the College fields. It was a successful event and I am grateful to our events team for their support. Our Year 12 IB students came into school on Saturday for an induction morning, for which I thank Mr. Balcombe, our IB Coordinator, Mr. Pankratz, our Head of Key Stage Five, and all those staff who presented and gave up their time at the weekend for our students.

This week, I also enjoyed my first Friends of Dulwich Committee Meeting, during which I gave an update on life across the College. I would like to thank all the parents who attended and for their ongoing work on the Committee.

I hope that you enjoy reading the individual school sections of the newsletter and discovering the extraordinary range of activities that have taken place even in this slightly shortened week. Thank you to our Heads of School for their hard work in collating all the articles and to our translation teams for bringing these to a wider audience.

If your child will not be returning in Term 2 (9th Jan 2017 to 31st Mar 2017), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Saturday 15th Oct 2016 in order to qualify for a refund.

Updated Contact Details

We would like to ask parents to email Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn with updated information i.e. home address, mobile/home telephone or email address if these have recently changed.

DCB is looking for our new Early Years Librarian! If you know anyone who would be interested in this local hire position, please forward them the advert below.

Do you a have wide knowledge of children’s literature and love working with children? Do you have teaching skills and a keen interest in working with students of varying reading levels? Then consider applying to join DCB’s stellar Early Years team as an Early Years Librarian! While encouraging reading and teaching basic information skills is instrumental to this role, the successful candidate will be able to organise, catalogue, and classify library resources as well as select, maintain, and acquire appropriate resources for the Early Years Library. This position will assist the Head Librarian in special programming to include author visits, Panda Book promotion, Beijing Literary Festival, and other related events.

We are pleased to announce that our Year 12 student, Kayla Cao, has starred in an award winning film and received high praise from the director. If you are a Senior School parent, you may have read last week that a number of our students have featured in a musical, The Remnant. All these students gave remarkable performances. Kayla was the main character and was joined by Claire Dvorchak, Asuka Kosugi and Maggie Hu. We are proud that our students performed so impressively and that the film won the prestigious Director’s Choice Award at the Portland Film Festival. Well done to all involved! There will be a special screening, with an introductory presentation from the director, on the evening of 27th September in the Edward Alleyn Theatre. Please look out for ticketing information on our newsletter next week.

In the Junior School, Year 3 students discovered how learning can be linked to play and fitness. They were rolled around inside enormous footballs and then threw themselves down large slides towards inflatable strawberries. They recorded their heart rates before and after and identified how exercise has an effect on their bodies. Next week they will be learning about muscles and the skeleton. The Junior School teachers and teaching assistants have worked hard to keep up with these energetic little Year 3s and have done a superb job in helping them to settle into their new school.

House Chess is now underway in the Senior School. Last year’s tournament was a great success, with students from Year 7 to 13 competing against each other and also against teachers. En passant, we think that Mr Press may be the new Anatoly Karpov but time will tell. What is certain, is that we have a most distinguised chess visitor coming to the College today. Sun Qinan , the Chinese grandmaster, will be joining us and demonstrating some moves. It is an honour indeed to welcome him and to spread the news about this wonderful game.

Pun of the week must go to Head of Early Years Mr Mumford, who described the food at the forthcoming special Roald Dahl Day as ‘Dahlicious’ (good luck to our Chinese translation team with that one). The Early Years assemblies this week focused on the Paralympics in Rio. The children learnt that these athletes have not been held back by a disability but have achieved amazing feats. The children then watched an extraordinary video which promoted respect for all in our society worldwide.

On a health and safety note, those who drive their children to school, or have drivers, are asked to abide by the parking rules in the drop-off car park. Please park correctly if stopping, respect other drivers and do not block the queue. The car park is a no-smoking area. Very soon we shall be introducing DCB Parking Permits. These will need to be displayed in car windscreens and will indicate the student’s name and form group. If a driver drives dangerously or without respect for the safety of students or other drivers, the right to park in the school car park will be removed. Please also inform your driver.

On Saturday this week, the AustCham (Australian Chamber of Commerce) barbeque will take place on the school fields. There will be a cricket match and also a chance to see some AFL or ‘Aussie Rules Football’ – a particularly exhausting and physical game. In the evening, my wife Helen and I will be attending an awards ceremony on behalf of the College. Dulwich College has been nominated for a China Expert International and Expat Life Award (ELA) in the International Schools category. The Expat Life Awards have been awarded annually since 2014 to the best providers of services and solutions for foreigners living in Beijing. We are honoured that the College has been nominated and I shall let you know next week if DCB comes home with a trophy!

Finally, I wrote an email to all parents this week. If you did not receive this, please check all your mailboxes and then contact either our ICT team here at school or the class teacher/form tutor.

Have an enjoyable weekend and hope to see some of you at the barbeque.

We would like to ask parents to email Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn with updated information i.e. home address, mobile/home telephone or email address if these have recently changed.

Reminder: Notice of Withdrawal From Term 2

If your child will not be returning in Term 2 (9th Jan 2017 to 31st Mar 2017), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Saturday 15th Oct 2016 in order to qualify for a refund.

1. Our Parent Portal is simple to use platform giving you on-demand access to information about the College relevant to you and your family. The Parent Portal is our key communication tool alongside the weekly College Newsletter. All announcements, forms and resources will be emailed to you and will also now be also uploaded to and stored on the Parent Portal, so that you can conveniently access these at any time.

Detailed information on ECA activities, school lunches, trips updates, presentations from various parent information meetings, as well as information from our Friends of Dulwich will be available on the portal only for our existing DCB parent community.

How do I enter our Parent Portal?

A button on the College website’s home page enables access to the Parent Portal.

After clicking on the link to the Parent Portal, you will be prompted to log in with a unique username and password. The primary or key contact email address you provided to the College will be your user name, and initially, your password will be Dulwich123.

Once you have logged in to the Parent Portal, you have the option to change your password.

You can select a tab from the menu to access the school information appropriate to your children. All the information and resources will remain accessible to you throughout the academic year should you wish to look through them.

2. We encourage parents to join our DCB WeChat group to receive up to date information on our news and events. Please upload the WeChat app to your phone and add ‘DulwichBeijing’ as your Friend or scan the QR below

2016 DCP Autumn Term Programmes —Places still Available!

DCP (Dulwich Community Programmes) Autumn Term Programmes have already started from 1st September, but are still places available. Students are welcome to join throughout the term!

Legend Garden Campus

Riviera Main Campus

1. DCP Kickers Football

1. Tech-kids

2. Tennis

2. In-line Skating

3. Swimming

3. Rhythmic Gymnastics

4. Rhythmic Gymnastics

4. DCP Kickers Football

5. Tech-kids

5. Science Club

6. In-line Skating

6. Basketball for Kids

7. DCP Music

7. Tennis

For the most updated DCP Autumn Term Programme details, please check the DCB parent portal!

Today we welcome Ms. Annabel Parker, Head of Mandarin across the DCI Group, and Mr. Damien Charnock, Headmaster from Dulwich College Shanghai. They are here to discuss the ongoing Mandarin focus across the Colleges and the exciting curricular projects which our Mandarin departments are undertaking. It is always good to share best practice with our colleagues and our Chinese teachers are always willing to do so.

We also have a visit from Mr. Bob Jia, one of the founders of Beijing Number 4 School and currently Deputy Director of Fazheng International Education. Mr. Jia would like to find out more about our curriculum and tour our facilities, which reflects very well on the reputation of DCB. It is an honour to welcome Mr. Jia and to strengthen our links with our Chinese colleagues.

The theme of my letter to you this week appears to be that of welcoming others. It is therefore apt that most of the Headmaster’s Commendations this week go to those boys and girls from Early Years, Junior School and Senior School who have shown kindness, particularly to their new peers who have just arrived at DCB. It is wonderful to see the Dulwich Values brought to life. I look forward to meeting these students and awarding them their certificates later today.

Today is also the day of the special annual event known as Moonlight Madness and, as I write this letter, I can see the stage being constructed outside the West Dome. The excitement is also mounting and I wish performers of all ages the very best. Mr. West relishes this event for its spontaneity and fun and is sure to write about it in next week’s newsletter. I look forward to seeing many of you here this afternoon or this evening.

Early Years children this week have focused on risk taking and great credit goes to the Wolves and Frogs classes who have led assemblies, taking a risk themselves and impressing their teachers and friends with their courage. Our Junior School students also required courage to face the mighty Ms. Grant in the Kung-Fu arena (see photo). The students were lucky enough to watch an amazing Kung-Fu demonstration (not by Ms. Grant!), some of which was viewed through Virtual Reality goggles. Martial arts were just some of the sporting offerings in the new CAS/PE programmes for the IB students, launched this week by Ms Lees. Mr. Hawkins gives more details in his newsletter and extols the importance of balance and fitness for all our students.

Our teachers and administrative staff are also seeking balance, exercise, teamwork and fun and during their working week and have signed up in huge numbers to the energising ‘Global Corporate Challenge’ which will start in earnest next week. Teams of seven will be competing in friendly rivalry with others from DCB and around the world in a new initiative, which we hope will be a positive and even habit changing experience for the participants. It includes guidance on exercise, nutrition, balance and mindfulness. DCB leads the way as the very first school in China to be involved. If you see staff walking briskly during their breaks and lunchtimes next week, glancing at their ‘pulse tracker (fitbit)’, you’ll know what is happening.

We would like to ask parents to email Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn with updated information i.e. home address, mobile/home telephone or email address if these have recently changed.

Reminder: Notice of Withdrawal From Term 2

If your child will not be returning in Term 2 (9th Jan 2017 to 31st Mar 2017), please send written notification to the Admissions Department (Admissions@dulwich-beijing.cn) by Saturday 15th Oct 2016 in order to qualify for a refund.

2016 DCP Autumn Term Programmes —Places still Available!

DCP (Dulwich Community Programmes) Autumn Term Programmes have already started from 1st September, but are still places available. Students are welcome to join throughout the term!

Legend Garden Campus

Riviera Main Campus

1. DCP Kickers Football

1. Tech-kids

2. Tennis

2. In-line Skating

3. Swimming

3. Rhythmic Gymnastics

4. Rhythmic Gymnastics

4. DCP Kickers Football

5. Tech-kids

5. Science Club

6. In-line Skating

6. Basketball for Kids

7. DCP Music

7. Tennis

For the most updated DCP Autumn Term Programme details, please check the DCB parent portal!

The College is absolutely buzzing! Your children have started back with real enthusiasm and it has been wonderful to see them linking in with their friends and welcoming new students to the school and to the Dulwich family.

My first message this week is student focused. Yesterday I introduced the ‘Headmaster’s Commendation’ which is my chance to say well done to students from Early Years, Junior and Senior School who have excelled in an area of school life, from academic work, to service to others, to modelling a Dulwich Value. Teachers will recommend students who will then come to my office to receive a certificate to take home. Today we have our first recipient of this commendation. I would like to say well done to Junior School student Victor Yin from class 6CE. This commendation was awarded to Victor for his excellent problem solving and creativity in his Maths class. Well done Victor – I couldn’t understand the algebra myself but it looked very impressive!

On Thursday we enjoyed the Newcomers’ Fair in Coffee and Books, which was organised by our Marketing and Events Department to help new parents to settle into DCB and into Beijing. We do understand that transition for some of our new families means a change of country, school and job, so we do all we can to provide the best advice and care. The event included talks by Dr. Dorothy Dexter from United Family Hospital and Mr. Alex Gao from Pure Living. The International Newcomers’ Network was also represented and they would be happy to hear from you, even if you are not brand new to Beijing.

Being back in Coffee and Books reminded me of what a beautiful space it is and how lucky we are to have Friends of Dulwich parent-volunteers to serve coffee and tempt us with cake. In fact, this year we have over 80 volunteers, which shows just how willing our parents are to support and also the sales skills of our two parental Coordinators, Ms. Almen Lam and Ms. Feifei Liu. Two new ‘coffee baristas’ were being trained by other parents on Thursday and not only this, there was a gathering of parents who were meeting to prepare and plan for the Friends’ Dinner Dance in November. So the place really was a hive of activity and I am grateful to our parents for being so dynamic. I am not the only one who thinks so and am delighted to say that a recent Council of International Schools report commented positively on our parents’ contributions to school life and made special mention of Friends of Dulwich. You will hear more on that soon.

As you are aware Jean Li became Head of Friends towards the end of last term. Jean and I are very pleased to announce that Mrs. Michelle Hrabar has accepted the role of ‘Co-Chair’. This is excellent news, as Michelle is such a great supporter of the College and always so organised, sociable and welcoming to all. Jean and Michelle will make a great team and I thank them in advance for their hard work in the forthcoming year.

Each week I shall give a few highlights from our three schools but of course greater depth can be found in the individual school accounts, so please click on the tabs. In Early Years Mr. Mumford led Parents’ Information Evenings at both Legend Garden and Riviera Main Campus. Assemblies in both Early Years campuses have focused on the values of kindness, respect for others, risk taking, working together, perseverance and being responsible. Today I enjoyed my first weekly visit to the wonderful Little Riviera and Riviera Main Campus to see all our vibrant children and teachers in this purpose built Early Years environment. As mentioned in last week’s letter to you, Riviera and Little Riviera have had a makeover during the summer holidays and are looking superb.

The highlight from the Junior School, apart from the induction of new staff who this week enjoyed a workshop on cultural differences, is the extraordinary interest in the Friday afternoon Football Club. Over 140 children have signed up! Well done to Mr. Hurworth (our Football Coordinator through the College) and all the keen teachers and students from the Junior School. It will be lovely to see our South Pitch brimming with keen young footballers after school. Of course we know that football (‘soccer’ to our American friends) is becoming huge in China and Chinese business groups have recently bought three English clubs in the Midlands, including the Premier League’s West Bromwich Albion. Perhaps this is a sign of things to come. A special note at this point to sporty mums and dads: if you would like to help with this Friday football activity in any way, or train as a coach or co-coach, please let Mr. Lydall (eddie.lydall@dulwich-beijing.cn ) or Mr. Hurworth (Stephen.hurworth@dulwich-beijing.cn) know. We would be delighted to welcome even greater parental support and engagement.

The Senior School has enjoyed a busy week, with a Trips Evening and Parents’ Information Evening on Thursday and also the introduction of the fascinating new IGCSE course Global Perspectives. You will hear more about this from Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Mitchell soon but it is worth saying that this course links smoothly with the IB philosophy of global mindedness and knowledge of world events. It will allow our students to consider global current affairs objectively and knowledgeably, which is part of our educative duty as a school. On the fun level, we also saw the start of the annual Tug of War competition and the visit of the dustbin bashing ‘Stomp’ music group in assembly, which was a lively treat for all Year 7-9 students. ‘Stomp’ use everyday objects to make music, so please excuse your children if they come home and make a loud noise in the kitchen.

May I wish all our students, parents and teachers a smooth start to the term. It really does seem to have been an excellent week all round.

Welcome back from your holidays! It was a pleasure to meet so many new parents during the Orientation Morning on Wednesday. It seems that Dulwich College Beijing is more popular than ever and our numbers are certainly buoyant.

I am delighted to say that the school year has started very well. Our teachers have been here planning and preparing since last Thursday and our new teachers have been back at school since the beginning of August, going through an extensive and rigorous induction programme. They are a dynamic group of teachers and we are excited that they have joined us. We wish them the very best and know that you will support them in their work and transition to Beijing.

This summer I travelled with my family to France and the UK. We enjoyed our holiday very much but it has also been a time of unease and worry in certain countries. The terrorist incidents in France and Germany this summer, along with attacks in Turkey and Bangladesh, were appalling. It brought home to me the importance of the values we try to instil in all our students. We shall continue to impart our ethos and culture as an international school community made up of over 40 nationalities. We shall advocate our Dulwich values and be tolerant of others, nurturing leaders of the future who learn to lead with compassion, philanthropy and global mindedness.

On a much brighter note, the summer was busy for some of our staff and students, none more so than Mr. Arvind Bangay, our Senior School Head of Art, who married his fiancée Shirley Wan, former Early Years teacher; Ms. Chloe Mayes, Key Stage 1 leader at Legend Garden, who married her fiancé Stephen; and Mr. Jordan Burns, Head of DCP and Sports Facilities, who married his fiancée Li Chao. Mr. Dan Nichol, our Deputy Head in the Junior School and Ms. Sarah Blundell, who will this year be a Year 5 teacher in the Junior School, announced their engagement; and Mr. Joseph Stewart and his wife Tao announced the birth of their beautiful baby, Rose Edith. We send them all our warmest congratulations.

In the meantime, Mr Paul West, our Director of Performing Arts, organised a superb Chamber Choir tour to the UK, assisted by Ms. Nina Haynes. The sixteen DCB musicians sang beautifully in some of the most famous and musically significant buildings of London, Oxford, Exeter and Cambridge. Mr. West adds, ‘They also enjoyed the best sights, culture, theatres and restaurants that the UK has to offer!’

The Global Round of the World Scholars’ Cup took place in Bangkok during the summer holidays. Three Junior and one Senior team competed with over 3200 students in debating, collaborative writing and multiple choice challenges. Our teams returned with a wealth of medals and trophies, and invitations for all teams to return to the Tournament of Champions round at Yale University in November. We congratulate all the students involved and thank Ms. Palmer and Mr. Hawkins for accompanying.

The summer is also a time for examination results and university placements for many of our students. We are still waiting for more IGCSE results, but are delighted to announce the 100% pass rate for the IB Diploma, a superb average point score of 37 and successful entry to eight Ivy League Universities, along with Oxford and Cambridge. We always say that headline figures are impressive but the hard work from our teachers and focus on every individual is what counts and I was delighted that three quarters of our graduating class achieved placement at their first choice university. The LAMDA Drama results have also been published and Ms. Harison-Denby says, ‘With a huge 79 students entered, 68 passed with Distinction. These are stunning and I thank my departmental colleagues for their dedication.’

Our Operations department is always busy during the summer and our facilities remain impressive. Without listing every detail of painting and refreshing of indoor and outdoor spaces at our three campuses, I would like to draw your attention to the new digital screen in the Legend Garden Atrium, the new perimeter wall, the flooring at Riviera and our continued emphasis on anti-pollution measures, which includes the cleaning of all the air ducts and the installation of 54 more primary air filters by PureLiving. The Early Years offices have moved location and can be found next to the Sports Dome. This allows for a larger nursery classroom. Our thanks go to Mr. Yeung and his team for all their hard work.

I look forward to seeing you at the Welcome Back BBQ on Friday 19th, which is always an enjoyable way to come together as a community.

I am very excited to be leading the College and working with staff, students and parents - the whole Dulwich family - to make this a superb year.

Finally, I would like to wish you and your families the very best for the new term.

Kindest regards,

Simon Herbert

Headmaster

Dulwich College Beijing

NOTICES

WELCOME BACK BBQ

We would like to remind you about our Welcome Back Barbecue tomorrow evening, Friday, 19 August 2016.

Despite the wet weather today, the barbecue will proceed as planned.

We will confirm the location of the barbecue by noon tomorrow, so please look out for the latest information via email and WeChat.

As we expect many guests and parking is limited, we would appreciate your help in the following ways:

Please print your confirmation or save it on your phone. Present your confirmation at our Reception Desks in exchange for a food coupon.

Please bring your Dulwich ID for easy identification and quick access. Do bring a picnic mat and a frisbee for some outdoor fun!

If you are driving, please park at the designated parents' parking across the main school compound.

There is no charge for food but non-alcoholic beverages, beer and wine will be sold on site by the Friends of Dulwich. Please bring along some cash to pay for your drinks.

TICKETS FOR STOMP

Theatrical percussion group STOMP is now in Beijing for the internationally acclaimed group’s 25th anniversary, blending dance, comedy, and rhythm and keeping audience members tapping their toes to the beat. With only a few weeks left of the group’s China tour, DCB and Friends of Dulwich have organised a very special trip for the Dulwich community to watch the group’s matinee performance. We are thrilled to offer DCB parents and staff an exclusive 15% off tickets to see the show on Saturday, 27 August at the PLA Theatre from 2:30pm

The show, which has been performed in 53 different countries and across six continents, originated in Brighton, UK and uses the body and ordinary objects, such as newspapers and bins, to create a one-of-a- kind, physical theatre performance that’s great for all ages!

Join in the first Dulwich community event of the year at what is sure to be a phenomenal show! Transportation to and from DCB Legend Garden parking lot will be provided.

Ticket sales (cash payment only, price range RMB 180-480) can be made at our Welcome Back BBQ event this Friday, 19 August from 5:00-7:00pm. Tickets can also be purchased next week from the Music Department at the Legend Garden Campus.

Our Heritage

Dulwich College is one of the UK's oldest independent schools, founded in South London as a boys’ school in 1619. Dulwich College International (DCI) was established to bring the Dulwich education to students around the world.

Our Facilities

Our College campus is an expression of our learning philosophy. We offer an educational environment designed to nurture the intellectual, physical, social, and emotional development of our students.

Our Approach to Learning

Our approach to learning nurtures confidence and intellectual curiosity in our students, preparing them for success in further education and life beyond.

Language Learning in the College

Language learning is an important part of our learning philosophy at Dulwich. We believe that learning a language is essential for understanding the world as well as understanding oneself, and for appreciating the subtleties of cultural differences.

Applying to Dulwich

We appreciate that moving to a new school can be daunting and our Admissions team is on hand to guide families through the process.

Friends of Dulwich

Friends of Dulwich is an integral and supportive part of our community. We welcome new families to the College and offer significant support to families settling into life in Beijing.